Springs Learning Center
115 Blatchley Avenue
New Haven, CT 06513
203.787.1025
Fax: 203.787.7962
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), Executive Director
The Dominican Sisters have provided educational and pastoral services in New Haven, Connecticut, since 1901 in elementary, secondary and college programs. Recognizing growing adult literacy needs among the predominantly Latino population in the Fair Haven area, the Sisters opened the Springs Learning Center in 2002 to continue their educational mission in a new way.
Program Goal
History
Volunteer Opportunities
Student Writings
Advisory Council
Affiliations
Mission
The Springs Learning Center, a program established and supported by the Dominican Sisters of Peace, seeks to provide a holistic literacy program, with special emphasis on English as a second language, for under-served adult learners in New Haven, Connecticut.
Program Goal
The Springs Learning Center attempts to challenge the cycle of poverty, improve the quality of life, and empower the individual adult learner. The overall goal of the Center is to serve the marginalized by providing individual tutoring in basic literacy skills, job readiness, and development of self-esteem for adult students through talents and resources of the Dominican Sisters and others in the local community.
History
The Dominican Sisters have provided educational and pastoral services in New Haven, Connecticut, since 1901, in elementary, secondary and college programs, as well as in parishes and health care institutions. Responding to the demonstrated needs of the local community, they have chosen this educational ministry to utilize the talents and energies of the Sisters and local volunteers in order to address the needs of adult literacy in the neighborhood of Fair Haven.
The Leadership of the Congregation of St. Mary of the Springs has accepted a congregational directive to serve the poor. Accordingly, they agreed to provide start-up funding and the administrative services of Sr. Maryann Lawlor, OP, to inaugurate an adult literacy ministry. Sr. Maryann and her administrative team of Sr. Mary Ellen Boyle, OP and Sr. Barbara DeCrosta, OP, were designated to secure a facility at a site in a low income neighborhood; to equip the facility with educational materials and equipment; to recruit and train a volunteer staff in various methods of instruction including the respected Laubach approach (now known as Pro Literacy America), and to design an instructional program.
They have devised a volunteer-based program which offers one-to-one instruction in a caring and peaceful environment, modeled after their successful program in Columbus, Ohio. There, at the Dominican Learning Center, established in 1994, the Sisters currently have more than 300 students, about 100 tutors and a waiting list of dozens of adult learners.
The Springs Learning Center is funded by a combination of donated services, corporate and civic donations, individual gifts, and grants from Foundations and organizations.
Volunteer Opportunities
You can help change a life!
The Springs Learning Center accepts applications for volunteer tutors on an on-going basis. Tutors commit to work with a student approximately two hours per week (although some tutors elect to work with more than one student). Workshops are provided to teach volunteers about tutoring effectively. If you have a high school diploma and are interested in becoming a volunteer tutor, please call us at (203) 787-1025 or email us for more information.
Help us help others
If you are interested in volunteering in a capacity other than tutoring, please call us at (203) 787-1025 or email us to discuss the possibilities. Administrative help, cleaning tasks, and assistance with periodic individual projects are welcome on a regular or one-time basis.
Student Writings
Advisory Council
Members of the Springs Learning Center Advisory Council are:
Kate Cosgrove (Volunteers of Greater New Haven)
Kathie Hurley
John J. Leary
Robert Oliver
Alice Black (Development Director, St. Mary of the Springs)
Joseph Smyth
Affiliations
The Springs Learning Center is affiliated with The National Initiative for Literacy (NIFL), Pro Literacy America, Greater New Haven Literacy Coalition, the Dominican Learning Center of Columbus and Dominican Link.