We invite you to be a charter member of the OASIS Reading Club!

Would you help us introduce a new program that will allow you and other adults age 50 plus to share their love of reading with children in the Tucson community? Are you looking for a way to make a difference in a child's life? Welcome to the OASIS Reading Club!

The OASIS Intergenerational Tutoring Program is celebrating 20 years of helping children read better. In Tucson, we're celebrating that milestone by introducing the OASIS Reading Club, a brand new tutoring program, to be housed within the Pima County Public Libraries.The OASIS Reading Club will be introduced in the following libraries:

• Miller-Golf Links, 9640 E. Golf Links Rd.
  
• Quincie Douglas, 1585 E. 36th St.
  
• Valencia, 202 W. Valencia Rd.
  
• Woods Memorial, 3455 N. 1st Ave.
  
• Flowing Wells, 1730 W. Wetmore Rd.
  
• Columbus, 4350 E. 22nd St.

These libraries have already begun to recruit parents who want literacy tutoring for their elementary school children.

Tutors and parents will coordinate together to choose a time and suitable library location for the tutoring, generally after school or weekends. Tutors and parents will make a nine-week commitment to the program.

Tucson OASIS will provide free training and materials to get you started. Fingerprinting and a background check will be required before tutors can begin to work with the children.

If you're already an OASIS tutor and would like to get us started, or a Tucson OASIS member who has thought about tutoring, or even someone new to OASIS, let's talk!

Please contact Barbara Mullaney, our Intergenerational Tutoring Coordinator at bmullaney@oasisnet.org or at 322-5627.

Marilyn Francisco (right) reads with Juliette Lopez. Francisco is helping to coordinate the tutoring program in the San Solano Missions District.

Honoring Traditions to Help Kids Succeed

Budget shortfalls prompted the Baboquivari School District near Tucson, Arizona, to cut Friday classes, leaving many of the elementary students living on the Tohano O'odham Nation reservation with few productive choices for using their newfound day off.

But the San Solano Missions, a Catholic parish on the large reservation, have come up with an interesting solution using the OASIS Intergenerational Tutoring program as a model and starting point.

"We decided to turn that lemon into lemonade," says Barbara Mullaney, tutoring coordinator for the Tucson OASIS, describing the multi-faceted program, "Circle of Hope," that the Missions have developed in two locations on the reservation.

The first San Solano tutors have been trained, just like their volunteer tutor counterparts across the OASIS network, to focus on enhancing literacy skills. But rather than the traditional school-based model, the San Solano tutoring program is community-based and will include a focus on the Native American culture, with opportunities to learn the traditional language.

The new cultural component, combined with the OASIS intergenerational model, has made the idea especially attractive for potential volunteers.

"Intergenerational teaching and learning is key to the Native American culture," says Cathy Kent, the tutoring coordinator for the San Solano program. "In this community, you are considered an elder not just by your age, but by your willingness to guide and mentor the youth in your community. It's part of their tradition that the people of the Tohano O'odham Nation are trying to recapture."