You can make a difference by volunteering to tutor reading, writing, math or English language skills to an adult in your community. The Santa Barbara Public Library System’s Adult Literacy Program seeks volunteers who can serve once or twice a week as tutors at their local library.

The next training for volunteers begins Monday, June 17. The four-session course will meet Mondays and Tuesdays, June 17, 18, 24 and 25, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. in the Townley Room of the Santa Barbara Central Library, 40 E. Anapamu St. in Santa Barbara.

Free tutoring helps adult learners reach their goals, including improving job skills, studying for the GED test or learning how to help their own children do homework. For more than a quarter-century, the library’s literacy program has offered no-cost, one-to-one, flexibly scheduled tutoring at all library branches, and has helped thousands of local adults improve their life skills.

New volunteers must take nine hours of tutor training before being matched with a learner, and tutors are asked to make a six-month commitment to tutoring.

To sign up for the training course, please call 805.564.5619 or email literacy@sbplibrary.org. Turn your passion for learning into a positive step — and help someone who wants to learn something new!

All library programs are free and open to the public. Click here for more information about Santa Barbara Public Library System programs and services.

— Beverly Schwartzberg is the adult literacy coordinator for the Santa Barbara Public Library System.