Who We Are

LVEC's primary goals are to: 

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1. Provide tutoring services to adult English speakers who are learning to read English.

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2. Provide tutoring, computer-assisted learning opportunities, and conversation groups to support New American adults to speak and understand English.

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3. Recruit and train volunteer tutors to provide the services necessary for LVEC to accomplish its first two goals.

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LVEC collaborates with a number of organizations in order to meet these goals. Of particular value to LVEC is its relationships with local adult and continuing education programs as well as the community libraries of Southeastern Connecticut.

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Our History

Our organization was founded in 1978 in New London, CT and in 1997 merged with the Literacy Volunteers of Norwich. Our service area now encompasses all of New London county and much of Eastern Connecticut.

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The original mission was to teach basic literacy skills to English-speaking individuals over the age of sixteen who were unable to read or write. The significant influx of immigrants to Eastern Connecticut in recent years has drastically changed the services LVEC is called on to provide. Today, fewer than 20% of our learners are acquiring basic literacy skills while about 90% are learning English as a second or third language. As a result, LVEC's primary goals are to: 

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1. Provide tutoring services to adult English speakers who are learning to read English.

​

2. Provide tutoring, computer-assisted learning opportunities, and conversation groups to support New American adults to speak and understand English.

​

3. Recruit and train volunteer tutors to provide the services necessary for LVEC to accomplish its first two goals.

​

LVEC collaborates with a number of organizations in order to meet these goals. Of particular value to LVEC are its relationships with local adult and continuing education programs as well as the community libraries of Southeastern Connecticut

How We Teach

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For our ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) learners, LVEC provides:

1. An up-to-date computer lab equipped with language learning software.  The lab is located in the LVEC offices at the Otis Library, in Norwich.

2. Conversation groups led by professionally trained volunteer tutors. Unlike one-on-one tutoring, conversation groups encourage learners of various backgrounds to build language skills with their fellow students through conversation and exploration of the English language. Groups are informal, interactive, and focused on the practical needs of the learners - what the learners must know to thrive in the United States. 

For our Basic Literacy learners, LVEC provides:
1. Provide One-on-One Tutoring  for adult English speakers to read English 

This is with specially trained volunteer tutors. These tutors go through several training sessions to learn the most effective ways to teach adult learners how to read and write in English.

Finding LVEC

LVEC is located in a suite of designated classrooms and offices on the second floor of Otis Library, 261 Main St., Norwich, CT.

Mailing address is 261 Main Street, Norwich, CT  06360

Phone: 860-886-9096

Visit our website at: www.englishhelpect.com