For over thirteen years the Homework Central mission has been to assist children  in developing their capacity to learn and achieve through homework assistance, tutoring, and family support. The children and families we serve are primarily low income, Hispanic families.We believe that education is a critical component to a successful life in today's world. Often socio-economic and language barriers challenge this educational capacity. Our community homework centers, staffed by caring volunteers' and led by fully qualified site coordinators, can mitigate these obstacles so that children can become capable students.

Homework Central is an after-school tutoring program serving third, fourth, and fifth graders at three sites in North Central San Mateo. Teachers from five local elementary schools refer students; parents enroll their children in the program, and students attend their homework center four days a week. This program is at no cost to the families. Homework Central provides the following services: a.     From the data collected on the �Income Verification Form� provided by the City of San Mateo, 100% of our participants come from low income families. b.   We schedule evenings on  topics for  parents.  These have included educating parents on gang issues, their child�s transition to  middle school, educating families on the services available from local libraries. c. Family.  We invite  families to meet the staff and other participating families,  ask questions (with a translator present), and learn more about our  programs. Every year we present �Mad Science� night, Math night, and other educational evening events for the families we serve.  d. Tutor.  We invite our volunteers to attend an orientation to provide them with materials to assist them, a tutor training packet with detailed instructions and liability information, and a chance to meet other people in the community who have dedicated themselves to the children in our program.  The site coordinator is the daily constant at each site. Since many of the children come from families where English is a second language, we have a minimum of two bi-lingual volunteers available at every session.