What is the difference between your Literacy and ELL services?

Our Literacy Program is geared toward students whose first language is English, but read and write below an eighth-grade level. Our English Language Learning Program (or ELL) is geared toward immigrants whose first-language is not English.

All of our services are currently free.

Am I too advanced for your services?

Our services are geared toward a variety of levels of learners, but may not be appropriate for some high-level learners. A staff member can help you figure out what level is right for you. Email us at info@nashvilleliteracy.org to find out!

Do you offer in-person services?

Currently, most services are being provided virtually. Adult Basic Education (Literacy) pairs can meet remotely or in-person in public settings, such as libraries and coffee shops. English Language Learning (ELL) pairs can meet virtually over Zoom or have hybrid lessons (training and curriculum are virtual, but you can meet in-person in public).

Do you still have an Antioch office?

Currently, all of our offices are closed to the public. We do hope to reopen soon and plan to have in-person services at our West Nashville (Cohn School) location. Unfortunately, we closed our Antioch location (325 Rural Hill Rd. Suite #2), but there may be opportunities for reopening in this area in the future.

Do you provide services for children?

We exclusively serve ages 18+. We do not provide childcare, but do offer virtual services if you need to learn from your own home.

Our volunteer opportunities are also exclusively for ages 18+.

How can I support your services?

Monetary donations in any amount are always appreciated and can be made online or by mailing a check to our offices at 4805 Park Avenue, Nashville, TN 37209. Additionally, we have accounts with Kroger, Bongo Java, and Walmart Round Up - learn more!

We also have several volunteer opportunities if you’d like to get more involved.

And sharing our good work with your friends and family is so important. Make sure to follow us on social media and like, comment on, and share our posts. Word of mouth is our best marketing, and we can always use more support.

Questions about donations or funding that aren’t answered on our site? Contact us to find out more.

I can’t commit to three months, but I want to volunteer. What options do I have?

Currently we require at least a twelve-week commitment from any of our tutoring volunteers. There may be other specific volunteer opportunities available here, but if not, sharing our work, social media posts, emails, and other information is a huge support as well!

What happened to your Start Now Program?

Start Now was a popular tutoring program where learners could get started with a temporary volunteer tutor while waiting for a permanent match. Students enjoyed working with many different tutors, and volunteers appreciated the short-term commitment and flexible scheduling.

All Start Now appointments were coordinated in NALC offices, which we had to close for COVID-19. Since it was not feasible to coordinate so many people online for temporary meetings, we discontinued the program during the pandemic. Instead, we used existing staff to launch our online classroom program, which has been a tremendous success. We are seeing significant increases in attendance and overall hours of instruction for our learners, so we plan to continue this program in lieu of Start Now for the foreseeable future. Former Start Now tutors are highly encouraged to try one-on-one tutoring, where we have also been making improvements. We have shortened the time commitment to three months (instead of six), and we have adopted a new curriculum that makes it easy and fun to follow a lesson. You can learn about our new volunteer opportunities here.

Can I volunteer as an internship or service-learning project?

Yes, we work with established programs at some local universities to provide internships. Please note that you must attend pre-scheduled trainings, and after those are complete, it can still take several weeks or more to be matched with a learner. We cannot guarantee meeting deadlines and/or hour requirements. If you are on a deadline for hours, you may be better served by a different volunteer program.

We are not accepting requests for research projects at this time.

How long will I have to wait to get paired with a tutor?

It depends on how many learners and trained tutors we have available, schedules, and other preferences, as well as staff capacity. It may take quite a while to get placed into a class or with a tutor once you’ve been placed on the waitlist. Please be patient and know that our staff are working hard to help you get the services you need.

Can’t find the answer to your question?

Send us an email on our contact page or use the search bar below to search our site for possible answers.