Lawyers for Learning (LFL, Inc.) is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to providing a program through which members of the legal community of Erie County, New York, volunteer as tutors and mentors at School 18, a public grade school located in the economically-depressed West Side neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. School 18 has one of the highest rates of poverty among Buffalo Public Schools.
The program provides volunteer assistance to students who are academically at risk and/or financially disadvantaged in order to improve their academic performance, build self-esteem, provide profession role-modeling and increase self-confidence. The program operates during the School 18 academic year (roughly September to June) and matches volunteers drawn from the entire legal community, including judges, lawyers, law students, court clerks, paralegals, court reporters, secretaries and other staff, with students ranging from first grade to eighth grade. Each tutor is assigned one or two children for the academic year, depending on the tutor’s preference. The volunteer tutor is asked to commit one hour per week to tutoring, principally in reading, writing, and mathematics.
