Our Mission

The City Tutors is a free learning and career center for NYC residents who have historically faced barriers to accessing individualized academic and professional development services.

Expand Support to Partner Sites

We expand support by partnering and staffing programs that work with underserved communities, and that have limited or no capacity to provide academic and professional support.

Enhance Support for Partner Sites

We enhance support by helping the sites deliver support to the communities they serve.

Empower New Yorkers

We empower more New Yorkers to serve through tutoring and mentoring by offering training for those with no formal experience, by developing a portfolio of site partnerships that ranges in time and subject options, by focusing on the tutors’ and mentors’ growth professionally, and by helping volunteers connect with other like-minded individuals.

 

In New York, The City Tutors

Let our tutors, partner sites, and the students they serve tell you about their experience with the City Tutors.

 

Built for CUNY students.

The City Tutors provides flexible days and hours to build transferable and technical skills at the cross section of students' academic interests and employment aspirations.
 
First generation and immigrant students attend college, study hard and often juggle a survival job or two. When they graduate, they are asked to demonstrate the experiences that make them a strong fit for the job. Though they might have a lot of transferable skills from part time jobs and family responsibilities, they are competing against candidates who have experiences (ie. internships and projects) that carry more weight with employers. 
 
For these students, blocking off time for internships (especially unpaid ones) may not be realistic. Through embedded, virtual and study group tutoring opportunities, CT provides students from all economic backgrounds with foundational skills for the work they seek in today’s job market.  Tutors are trained in effective tutoring practices, choose locations where they would like to work and receive guidance and assistance from a tutor trainer as needed.  Concurrently, tutors gain access to a mentor from an industry in a field they are interested in and/or an HR or job coach who works with them to position for their next career steps. 

 

Empowering the community to serve through tutoring and mentorship.

We see tutoring as a way to empower individuals to work in the community. We provide flexible times, convenient locations, and meaningful experiences, allowing more community members to participate and to support community partners for longer.

We believe tutoring must be a reflective act that both helps strengthen individuals' support of others and helps  individuals better understand themselves. We provide our tutors with access to industry mentors who help connect the work they are doing with us with what they've done in the past and what they want to do in the future.

We believe in leveraging the workforce skills of our community of volunteers by pairing those in need of professional support with industry experts who can provide insight into specific fields and feedback on professional documents.

We see the City Tutors as an opportunity to bring people together under a common purpose. We want like-minded individuals to feel they are part of a fellowship, to build their network with people within their discipline, and to expand the disciplines and industries they've been exposed to. 

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Garri Rivkin
Executive Director, Mentor