Ever considered mentoring a child? One hour a week is all it takes.

Experience the joys of mentoring and helping a child learn to read as Time To Read comes full force to the Capital Region. This fall, Time Warner Cable is introducing the AOL Time Warner literacy-mentoring program called Time To Read ("TTR") to the Capital Region.

Time To Read is AOL Time Warner's volunteer literacy mentoring program, and is being offered as an integral part of the Capital District YMCA's Black and Latino Achievers Program at no cost by Time Warner Cable. Started in 1985 to address the crisis of low levels of literacy among American children and adults, the program now operates at more than 575 locations across the country, involving more than 34,000 reading mentors and learners.

Through the Achiever's Program, Time Warner Cable and CDYMCA plan to pair volunteer mentors from Time Warner Cable and the community with middle school and high school youth who are in need of reading assistance. TTR provides kids and adults who are already reading at or above the fourth-grade reading level with the bridge between basic literacy instruction and a high school equivalency diploma. Time To Read will provide volunteer mentors with training, materials and resources - all we ask is one hour a week of your time to make a real difference in the life of a local child.

TTR trains tutors; provides free magazines to be used as reading material as well as atlases, dictionaries, workbooks and a specialized curriculum fully supported by its website, www.timetoread.com. The magazines become the property of the mentors and learners (each of whom receive a free subscription to the magazine of their choice for use in the program), and provide a shared reading resource in their homes. Training for mentors will be conducted in two sessions: one six-hour introductory course scheduled for early October, and one four-hour follow-up course in mid-November. Time Warner Cable and AOL Time Warner pay for costs of the TTR program.

Mentors take the knowledge and resources they receive during the training, and spend approximately one hour each week for the duration of the school year with their learner - reading the free magazines they each receive, relying on the available dictionaries and atlases and helping their students through the activities in the TTR manual. Mentors will be asked to evaluate the TTR program, and provide feedback annually.

For more information on how to get involved as a mentor with the Achievers Program, contact the YMCA at 869-3500, and visit http://www.cdymca.org. For more information regarding Time To Read, you may visit TTR on the web at www.timetoread.com. For more information regarding Time Warner Cable's educational and community initiatives, visit twalbany.com's Around Town section.

Click for the CD YMCA's Black And Latino Program brochure. (PDF File)