Volunteers for Community Impact (VCI) has a long and successful history of reaching at-risk and special needs children by providing educational success through caring, older, adult volunteers.

OTTER: Older Teachers Teaching Early Readers was originally created in 2004 and funded by the Winter Park Health Foundation as a demonstration project by VCI’s first Executive Director, Jane Watkins. The program is currently funded by Orange County Citizens’ Commission for Children.

OTTER volunteers are trained in early literacy best practices and read aloud high quality, age-appropriate books while engaging early learners in activities that build print awareness, oral language, alphabet knowledge, and phonological awareness. The OTTER program utilizes evidence-based reading strategies and curriculum, including Scholastic’s PreK On My Way and REAL (Read, Excel, Achieve, Lead) mentor guides to achieve these objectives. Early, frequent, and pleasurable reading experiences increase children’s chances of developing the foundational literacy skills that lead to academic success and a higher quality of life.

Volunteer opportunities are now available to community volunteers in Orange County who are 18 years or older and who wish to instill a lifelong love of reading in PreK students.

Using best practices learned from our AmeriCorps Seniors Foster Grandparent Program and from previous iterations of OTTER, we provide an early prevention/intervention approach to literacy by engaging volunteers in Early Head Start, Head Start, and other early learning programs. If you are 18 years or older and wish to share your love of reading with young children, please consider becoming an OTTER volunteer.

This program is funded in whole or in part by grants from the Citizens’ Commission on Children.

We are looking for new volunteers!
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