Volunteer

Become a volunteer

Beaverton Literacy Council is an all-volunteer organization helping over 450 adult learners from 50+ countries improve their English and build community. We hope you will join this meaningful work!

We're on the home stretch of the 2024/25 school year, so are not placing new volunteers at the moment. Please click here to  join our volunteer mailing list; we'll be in touch in the summer about info sessions and training opportunities for volunteering in the fall.  Thank you!

If you have specific questions at this point, please contact Linda at lindab@beavertonliteracy.org. 

Please note: BLC volunteers must live or have lived in the US. 

On-line / In-person

Volunteers may teach once or twice per week, whether in a core or conversation class. 

BLC offers core classes twice-per-week

• Online on Zoom, mornings and evenings.

• Evening in-person: near the main Beaverton library 

• Morning in-person near the corner of Allen Blvd & Murray Road

• Morning in-person at North of Hwy 26, east of 185th.

BLC offers conversation classes once-per-week online. 

What's required? 

Volunteers may be lead or assistant teachers. 

• Lead teachers create lesson plans, lead classes, track student progress to inform future lessons.

• Assistant teachers help model material, lead breakout rooms, assist as agreed to with the lead.

Volunteers need to be fluent, open-minded English speakers.  You don't have to be a grammar expert or have even have teaching experience, but you do have to love learning and helping others learn.

It's helpful but not required to have:

• Teaching experience of some kind

• Experience learning another language at any level

• Experience being an outsider

• Comfort with basic technology

Online teachers need a laptop or desktop computer with a stable wifi connection. (Sorry, tablets and phones don't work well for this.)

Training and support is encouraged and available for ALL volunteers: 

• Fall in-person all-volunteer workshops.

• Mentor teachers for each class level 

• Roundtable discussions

• Observe other teachers

• Textbooks to guide lesson planning in levels 0-4

• BLC paid online subscriptions