December 2025 Positive Change Recipient – TLP

A Note from GreenStar:  Tompkins Learning Partners was selected by GreenStar members to be among our twelve 2025 Partners for Change.  TLP was originally slated as the November Partner for Change, but graciously adjusted to December to allow GreenStar to raise emergency funds for local nonprofits to help feed community members in need. Please Round Up your purchase at the Co-op to support their work!  

Tompkins Learning Partners Tutors Help Adult Learners Thrive

Tompkins Learning Partners (TLP), GreenStar’s December Partner for Change, will celebrate 50 years providing 1:1 adult literacy education in Tompkins County in 2026. Originally operating under the name Literacy Volunteers of Tompkins County, TLP relies on a team of approximately 65 active tutors and several staff teachers to support local adults in meeting their educational and life goals.

Tompkins Learning Partners operates three programs:

• English Language Learning (ELL)
• Adult Basic Education (ABE) including studying for the GED subject exams, and
• Citizenship preparation

Our students are motivated and clear about their goals. Their commitment and dedicated work, with the support of their tutor, has a transformative impact in their lives. Staff and tutors celebrate with them as they find or improve employment, pursue new educational opportunities, earn a High School Equivalency diploma, become a US citizen, read to their children and grandchildren, gain digital literacy skills for navigating health care portals and online forms, volunteer in the community, serve as translators, and much more.

During the intake process with a program coordinator, our adult learners set goals, discuss schedules, and take an initial assessment. The program coordinator matches each student with a volunteer tutor or staff teacher, based on their goals and the tutor’s subject area of interest and expertise, as well as their schedule availability. Student/tutor partners typically meet for one 2-hour session per week, at TLP on W. Buffalo St., or at another public location such as a library or community center. The flexibility of 1:1 tutoring often makes pursuing educational goals possible when transportation, work, or childcare challenges make it too difficult to participate in a formal classroom setting; for other students, tutoring provides the additional support needed to enable them to thrive in an ELL or ABE  class.

Prior to being matched with a student, tutors attend a one-and-a-half hour orientation via Zoom and a half-day initial training, focused on philosophy and strategies for working with adult learners. Additional in-person and online training, geared toward tutors’ specific needs round out the 15 hours of training provided in a tutor’s first year with TLP. In subsequent years, tutor meet-ups for sharing ideas and ongoing training are offered to assist tutors in growing in their teaching practice and address questions and needs that emerge. Program coordinators are available for coaching or problem solving. No prior teaching experience is needed, just a willingness to work supportively and respectfully with an adult learner in our community, with a focus on their goals and an openness to learning and growth!

Tompkins Learning Partners’ next quarterly tutor training will be held in January 2026:

• Saturday, January 17, 2026   10:00 – 11:30 am Zoom
• Saturday, January 24, 2026   10:00 – 2:30 pm in-person at TLP

Email Literacy@TLPartners.org to request an information packet about becoming a tutor, including forms to be completed prior to training. Visit TLPartners.org to learn more about our work and how you can support adult literacy education in Tompkins County!