Community Corner
Kathy Noone: Helping Students at the Lorton Community Action Center
Center offers many programs, including free tutoring to those in need
The (LCAC) is more than just a local food bank. For long-time staff member Kathy Noone, it’s an outreach center that allows the community to give back to those in need.
Noone, the director of Human Resources at LCAC and longest surviving staff member, wears multiple hats within the organization. “I oversee quite a few of the outreaches,” said Noone. “Back-to-school, Thanksgiving, Christmas—I basically run the volunteer program here.”
One of the programs that Noone is most proud of is the tutoring outreach. Founded 14 years ago, the program offers students with non-documented learning disabilities the chance to spend one hour per week with a qualified volunteer to review schoolwork, foundational studies and focus on subjects that are especially difficult for the particular child. The family must show some kind of financial need and be committed to the program.
“We’ve had a lot of interesting students over the years,” recalled Noone. “They’d crawl under the table—clearly they didn’t want to be there. But in most cases we were able to determine that there was something else going on at home causing them not to focus.”
Noone also remembered a time when a student pushed his face into a book each time he came for tutoring. After investigating with client services, it turned out the child needed glasses, but his family couldn’t afford them. “We worked with the Lions Club and were able to give the child glasses,” said Noone. “It made a world of difference.”
For Noone, keeping the program running without county funding has been a struggle, but one she has been able to overcome. “I’m always looking for ways to improve the program,” said Noone. “How can we make it more efficient? What else can we get done in the hour?”
A short one-hour time slot for learning may not seem like a lot, but the feedback Noone receives from the students’ teachers proves the program is working.
“There is a change in the child’s self confidence,” said Noone. “They go up a grade, they’re doing their homework and feeling proud of their work…their hands are going up and they are attempting to answer questions in class.”
The tutoring program currently has 11 volunteers, one for each student, but she can accommodate up to 15 total. “I can’t say enough wonderful things about our volunteers,” said Noone. “They get us through the program.”
Noone’s volunteers provide the help for the students, but it’s her belief in the program’s educational success and sheer determination to make it happen that keep her outreach running.
“The education of our children is what is going to help bridge this country,” said Noone. “If the children don’t have confidence in themselves, as they become teenagers and adults, that’s going to stay with them. If they can get that foundation of, yes, it might be difficult, but with a little help I can do it…it will bring the confidence to them.
“I was not a child who was fantastic in school, but I knew there were people to help me if I needed it," Noone said. "So I can’t imagine being a child who is struggling and doesn’t have anyone to go to. By overseeing the tutoring program, I’m making some small finite difference in a child’s life. They may not know it, but I know it. And that makes me feel good.”
To find out about volunteering, call the center at (703) 339-5161.
