Volunteer
Join our team on-site or online and connect with the people creating brighter futures.
- Give an hour or a season — you choose the pace
- Work alongside local leaders, educators and neighbors
- Your hours tracked and ready whenever you need them
Applications open — internships and volunteer rolesGrow your resume.
Grow your resume.
Build brighter futures.
Join the team turning Lynn into a City of Readers. Bring your talent and drive — we will bring the mentorship, the important work, and the record of what you accomplished.
Our stories are our success.
Service learning
Find the one that fits you
Intern
Apply to one of our internships and leave career-ready, with the work to show for it.
- Mentorship from subject-matter experts in their fields
- Twelve weeks of real deliverables, not shadowing
- Certificate, reference and a documented work history
The scale of the problem
Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not.
One number showed us how unevenly opportunity was spread in Lynn. It is the reason The REAL Program exists, and the reason we did not stop at books.
The number that started it
1
public library for a city of 100,000+ residents
Lynn had one. That is where we started.
Each dot is 1,000 residents
- 01A child who cannot easily reach a book reads less.
- 02Reading less makes school harder.
- 03A harder time at school narrows what comes after it — the college application, the first job, the career.
- What this meansThe gap does not stay a literacy gap. It becomes an opportunity gap.
Our approach
Cradle-to-Career Literacy Pathway
Using literacy as the foundation for better opportunities. Our volunteers, staff, interns, and of course the children and families of Lynn and the surrounding community all experience the benefits of our approach first-hand — through service learning, internships, volunteering and supporting our mission, while improving their own future prospects.
Ages 3–5
Early childhood
Starting Small preschool opens the pathway before kindergarten.
Grades K–8
School years
Before Home tutoring and mentoring, plus the Digital Literacy Program — devices, Khan Academy and instructor-led learning.
Summer
Out of school
REALSTREAM summer learning holds ground against the summer slide.
Adults 18+
Parents and careers
College-age adults through retirees and guardians get ESL classes, digital literacy, and service learning through volunteering and internships.
Results
All because of people just like you
0+
books distributed
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individuals reached
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meals shared
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partner organizations
Before you apply
Common questions
Our partners
This work runs on generous support
We are grateful to the organizations whose partnership sustains our programs.
Education Comes First
Their grant support powers our cradle-to-career literacy pathway, from staffing and materials to the internships themselves.
Little Free Library
We are proud stewards of their library network in Lynn and a selected member of their Read in Color 2026 cohort.
Lynn Public Schools
Our district partner through the CPPI and PRISM grants, connecting our programming directly to classrooms and students.
Greater Lynn Chamber of Commerce
Shares our events with the local business community and helps broaden the visibility of our work across the region.
Lynn Community Television
Features our programs on air and amplifies our work through their social media channels.
Khan Academy
Provides learning access and tablets so students can continue their coursework wherever they are.
Google for Nonprofits
Provides the collaboration and workspace tools our entire team relies on, at no cost.
With additional support from more than 20 other institutions and individuals at the local, regional and national level.
Ready when you are
Bring your talent and drive.
We have important work to do.
A lifetime of literacy, a lifetime of opportunity.