Our Program

Umlaut Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to supporting middle-school and high-school foster and kinship youth through volunteer-supported tutoring. Specifically, Umlaut provides one-on-one mentoring in topics that can range from visual arts to SAT prep to basic homework help. We understand that each and every foster youth has different needs and learn through different means. For this reason, Umlaut promotes responsive tutoring, where tutors aid in topics that are presented rather than following a rigid course plan.

Volunteers

Umlaut actively seeks volunteers who have goals that align with our own. Those goal being:

• To extend opportunities for growth and improvement in education and extracurriculars for foster and kinship youth
• To form bonds between students with shared interests
• To create a more aware and empathetic community

Our application process for volunteers involves a thirty-minute interview, where we get to know our applicants, assess their teaching methods, and orient them in Zoom. This process has been carefully curated to ensure our volunteers are passionate, sociable, committed, and qualified to tutor.
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Of course, our application process does not end at the interview. In a volunteer’s first three tutoring sessions, we will continue to monitor their commitment and performance through anonymous feedback forms. In the case that a volunteer receives poor feedback, we move to a hands-on approach with our volunteer. 

Donations

Donations and funds go directly to our tutoring programs; foster youth and volunteers can request specific materials to aid their mentorship (i.e. textbooks, workbooks, art supplies, etc.) 

COVID-19 Repsonse

In light of the Shelter-In-Place quarantine, Umlaut has transferred to remote mentoring. However, we intended to switch to in-person tutoring once quarantine ends. By partnering with local schools, churches, and libraries, Umlaut can host tutoring sessions without infringing on the privacy of our foster youth or volunteers. 

Get Your Foster Youth Community Involved

At Umlaut, we understand that each community has its own guidelines. That being the case, we can not support a strict outreach approach. So, if you are interested in getting your foster youth community involved, we ask, and encourage, that you email us.