Volunteer with Los Ayudantes and Make a Difference in RWC Students' Lives    ​

Los Ayudantes (translated "The Helpers" in Spanish) is a literacy non-profit dedicated to helping Redwood City 6-8th grade students improve their reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. We place in-class volunteer tutors in the English Language Arts and English Learners classes at middle schools in the Redwood City School District.
At the direction of teachers, we help students improve reading comprehension and knowledge and refine their writing skills.  Almost more importantly, however, we become trusted adults/mentors in the lives of the students we work with on a weekly basis providing thoughtful concern for the students and helping them with any other issues that may be on their minds.  In fact, many teachers explain that they wish they had the time in the day to get to know the students as well as we do.

Our Mission

Our mission is to promote literacy for life for middle school students in the RWC school district.  We will do this by establishing caring connections with them and helping the students build literacy and critical thinking skills necessary for success in high school and beyond.

Dedicated Volunteer Tutors

Since our inception in 2002, Los Ayudantes has delivered thousands of hours of small group tutoring to English learners in Redwood City schools.  In small group language and reading comprehension practice, we celebrate progress as students grow their English language and critical thinking skills.
"This past year marked our first partnership with Los Ayudantes, and it has been an incredible experience.  Throughout the year our students built supportive relationships with the tutors and made meaningful progress, not only in their reading skills but also in their confidence reading aloud with others.  Many students looked forward to their sessions and were excited to practice.  We're grateful for this partnership and look forward to welcoming Los Ayudantes back next year." - Cristian Cortez, ELA Middle School Teacher, Connect Community Charter School

Los Ayudantes' Impact

​Students who have achieved grade level proficiency in English language skills are MUCH more likely to graduate high school.   We focus on our local community where the need is considerable.  
  • Over 50% of students in the Redwood City district are designated English language learners. 
  • 43% of Redwood City third grade students read one or two levels below their current grade. That figure rises to 65% for Latino students in the district.
  • Nationally, we know that 88% of all high school drop-outs couldn’t read proficiently by 3rd grade.  As such, many literacy non-profits stop serving children after 3rd or 5th grade.   This is where we come in.   We don't give up on these students.  We don't stop believing in them.