Public/Private Ventures
Experience Corps, an initiative of the San Francisco-based nonprofit Civic Ventures, aims to improve the literacy skills of low-income elementary schoolers with the help of older adult volunteers. This evaluation finds that a four-year expansion of Experience Corps launched in 2001 in Boston, Cleveland, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., was successful in recruiting more volunteers, adding nearly 70 schools as program sites, and increasing the corps’ fundraising capacity. Challenges to expansion included cutbacks in schools’ budgets, changes in leadership at schools and the short time allotted to recruit volunteers. Experience Corps overcame obstacles by being flexible in how and when it conducted programs, having modest and gradual goals for growth, and by recruiting part-time as well as full-time volunteers. Free, 70 pages. (212) 822-2400, www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/239_publication.pdf.
