hennepin county library homework help

It’s free to get a Hennepin County Library card, and anyone who needs to replace a lost or stolen library card can do so without paying a fee. You can get a new or replacement card in-person at any open library location, or apply online for a library e-card to access the library's online resources, including eBooks and other downloads. 

Education Services

Adult Basic Education Center Northwest Family Services Center 7051 Brooklyn Blvd., Suite 200 S Brooklyn Center, MN 55429 763-566-5452 Provides basic educational opportunities. Classes are offered in the areas of English as a Second Language, adult diploma, GED test preparation, academic skills (reading, writing, mathematics), College Prep, and Family Literacy 

Adult Options In Education Serves residents of  Hopkins, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park 1001 Highway 7 Hopkins, MN 55305 952-988-5343 Offers Adult Basic Education, English as a second language, workforce education and GED classes. 

Brian Coyle Center 420 15th Ave. S.,  Minneapolis, MN 55454 612-338-5282 ELL and computer skills training; refugee resettlement assistance.

CHP International Inc. - MN Job Corps Outreach & Admission 310 East 38th St., Ste. 304E Minneapolis, MN 55409 612-824-1546 Free education and training program for young people to learn a career, earn a high school diploma or GED, and find a good job

CLUES 720 East Lake St.  Minneapolis, MN 55407 612-746-3500 Services to the Latino community: Education programs for children, youth and adults; Family, economic advancement, mental health, chemical health and behavioral health 

Early Learning Centers 763-550-7226 North Education Center Academy - New Hope South Education Center Academy- Richfield Alternative education high-school programs for students, ages 12 through 21, and certified daycare facilities for the children of teen parents

Hennepin County Library Homework Help Various locations Tutors available at various libraries and online for all ages, Homework Resource Page

Hope 4 Youth 2665 4th Ave N. Suite 40 Anoka, MN 55303 763-323-2066 Drop-in Center, Housing Programs, Job Skills Training, On-site Tutors 

Hubbs Center 1030 University Ave W.  St. Paul, MN 55104 General: 651-290-4822 Special Needs: 651-290-4729 Adult Basic Education: English, math, GED, citizenship, computers, work skills, preparation for college. 

Metro South Adult Basic Education 2575 W. 88th St.  Bloomington, MN 55431 952-681-6170 Provides basic educational opportunities. Classes are offered in the areas of GED test preparation, high school diploma programs, English as a Second Language, and basic skills such as reading, writing, and mathematics. 

Minnesota Literacy Council 700 Raymond Ave, Suite 180 St. Paul, MN 55114 651-645-2277 Early Literacy and Family Program, Minnesota Adult Literacy Hotline

MIRA 7145 Harriet Ave S. 400 Richfield, MN 55423 612-243-3064 Latino Resource Center; offers English classes

Neighborhood House 179 Robie Street East St. Paul, MN  651-789-2500 Adult Education, college access, early childhood education

Southeast Asian Community Council  1827 44th Ave. N.  Minneapolis, MN 55412 612-521-4859 Provides support services, language training and youth development services to Southeast Asians living in the greater Minneapolis area.

St. David's Center 3395 Plymouth Road Minnetonka, MN 55305 952-939-0396 Early childhood education

Urban Ventures 2924 4th Ave. S.,  Minneapolis, MN 55408 612-638-1000 Tutoring, mentoring, music and sports programs for K-12; job preparation and placement programs

YouthLink 41 12th St.  Minneapolis, MN 55403 612-252-1200 Drop-In Center, Youth Opportunities Center, Education and Employment Assistance, Youth Housing

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Youth Services

Youth services at the Opportunity Center are delivered, primarily, by Hennepin County Library and EMERGE to give young people the support they need for learning, school, leadership, and career exploration.

Youth Individual Career Coaching

EMERGE offers a variety of opportunities to combine employment search, career readiness training, paid internships, and post-secondary support for a successful start.

Young people will have access to: work readiness workshops, digital & financial literacy, community engagement activities, and paid internships & job placements.

Contact for enrollment/more information: Khadro Mohamed, [email protected] , (612) 425-4701

Cedar Youth Leadership Group (CYLG)

The Hennepin County Library Cedar Youth Alliance serves kids, teens, and young adults in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. The alliance focuses on positive leadership activities to engage youth, further developing their sense of empowerment and encouraging their future participation in community affairs. The group creates projects and activities, promotes the library homework help service, and hosting college, career, and community conversations for youth.

Homework Help

Homework Help is a drop-in, after school Hennepin County Library program for K-12 that offers children and teens a free, safe, and welcoming space to master academic concepts, complete homework assignments, and build confidence and expertise in their learning.

Homework help tutors include neighborhood college students with expertise, lead tutors, and other staff members. The structure provides peer leadership and job skill development. Homework help surveys completed by students at the Opportunity Center show that one-on-one support from tutors is valued and a big reason they return to the program. 

Teen Tech Squad

Teen Tech Squad leverages modern learning and innovation skills in youth through STEAM-based activities. The squad is composed of local teens that are hired to develop and lead STEAM-based activities and workshops for youth in the community.

Squad-managing employees are equipped with tools to research, design, implement, and facilitate the activities for youth. They build skills in leadership, technology, interpersonal and career readiness by planning and delivering workshops.

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Reservable rooms at Hennepin County libraries include meeting rooms, conference rooms, study rooms, video conferencing rooms , and a piano room at Minneapolis Central Library. 

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Sumner is closed for renovation.

Pierre Bottineau is closed for renovation. 

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Staffing Your Homework-Help Center

Pairing the right minds with student learners.

By Cindy Mediavilla | July 18, 2018

More than anything, staffers make the difference,” Eva Mitnick, director of Los Angeles Public Library’s engagement and learning division, said to me about the library’s after-school Student Zone program. Indeed, providing adequate staff is the single most important element in offering effective homework assistance at your library. While some librarians call their curriculum-based collection of computers and reference materials a homework center, true homework assistance cannot happen without a staff member or volunteers to help students complete their work. Plus, many youngsters need the attention of an adult or peers to keep them on task when completing school assignments. They may also need validation to succeed.

The challenge comes in maintaining a paid or volunteer workforce large enough to provide sufficient assistance to the multitude of students who use the library every day after school. Most libraries cannot afford to hire the number of part-time employees needed to provide necessary homework help. Nor are they prepared to recruit and train a battery of after-school volunteers. Still, many libraries have succeeded in accomplishing this seemingly impossible task by maximizing the combined efforts of paid and volunteer staff.

Paid versus volunteer staff

Most homework centers would not exist without volunteer help. Paid employees are usually responsible for recruiting, training, and scheduling homework helpers, but it is often the volunteers themselves who provide the actual after-school assistance. At the Hennepin County (Minn.) Library, each homework-help site has a team of three essential program personnel: a librarian, a lead tutor, and volunteers. More than 300 volunteers staff the program throughout the library.

In lieu of a salary, some libraries give their volunteer homework helpers free parking passes, email accounts, T-shirts, lapel pins, mugs, water bottles, and recognition through public newsletters or social media. The motivation to volunteer can be extrinsic—for example, the chance to build one’s résumé—or intrinsic. At Seattle Public Library’s Lake City branch, a retired homework assistant said she enjoys helping kids because it’s fun and the emotional reward is immediate. In addition, Seattle’s 230 homework helpers can attend all-city training on various topics, including teen behavior and race relations. Ninety percent of Seattle’s homework helpers are adults.

Consistency is key in a program where young students expect to see familiar faces every day. Therefore, some libraries prefer to hire their homework helpers, rather than rely on the unpredictability of volunteers. Boston Public Library pays its teen homework helpers $11 an hour and requires them to sign a contract stipulating that they will work the entire school year. Likewise, the Long Beach (Calif.) Public Library staffs its Family Learning Centers with paid learning guides who work for the library year-round and help with the summer reading program.

In their 2015 joint “Homework Help Best Practices” statement, the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) and the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) recommend that an in-house staff person be designated to manage the homework center and train, coordinate, and schedule volunteers. In Monterey County, California, part-time homework site coordinators are hired to oversee individual centers and recruit and schedule volunteer helpers. At the Castroville branch, for example, the site coordinator works closely with the local university to recruit service-learning students, who are required to complete 30 hours of volunteer service each semester. The library gets free help from educated young adults, while the college students receive credit for required community service. Everybody wins.

Staff qualifications

Many libraries look to local school districts for homework helpers who are either current or retired teachers. Perhaps the best example of this is at Chicago Public Library, where accredited teachers provide after-school homework help at most branches, four days a week. The educators, many of whom are bilingual, are paid through the privately funded Teacher in the Library program. Thousands of hours of assistance are provided library-wide every school year. In Boston, teacher-tutors offer after-school help courtesy of the Boston Teachers Union. A schedule of the tutors’ availability, which varies from branch to branch, is posted on the library’s website.

Of course, not all homework helpers are teachers, nor should they necessarily be expected to have extensive educational backgrounds. Libraries should, however, appoint assistants who enjoy working with kids and are committed to helping them succeed. Previous experience working with youth, either in a paid or voluntary capacity, is often preferred. At the Winters (Calif.) Community branch of the Yolo County Library, high school juniors and seniors become helpers only after spending one or two years as mentors-in-training. At the Free Library of Philadelphia, college-aged homework helpers become associate leaders in the after-school program only after serving as teen leadership assistants during high school.

Other qualities are also highly desirable. The primary responsibility of Los Angeles Public Library’s homework helpers is to assist students using Student Zone laptops to complete school assignments. Therefore, strong knowledge of and experience with computers are mandatory. The ability to read and speak in languages other than English is important, too. Across the country, libraries are being tasked with helping students who speak Farsi, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tamil, Urdu, and Vietnamese, among other languages.

The coordinator of King County (Wash.) Library System’s Study Zone program maintains a list of bilingual homework helpers, noting exactly where and when they are scheduled each day, so students can be referred accordingly. Other, more generic qualifications include problem-solving skills, patience, flexibility, organizational skills, the ability to work as a team player, access to reliable transportation, and availability after school and on the weekend.

Recruitment

Homework assistants are generally recruited in the late summer and early fall, before the school year begins. Libraries use various methods of recruitment, including word of mouth, in-person conversations with community members, and printed fliers. A colorful brochure distributed by Monterey County (Calif.) Free Libraries beckons prospective homework center volunteers by promising a rewarding experience where one can learn about library resources, explore science kits with students, and play educational games, in addition to helping children complete their homework.

Libraries also post recruitment announcements on their websites, linking either from the homework-help site, general volunteer recruitment page, or library jobs page, if the position is paid. In Hennepin County, the announcement for paid homework-help lead tutors includes program goals, the position’s primary duties and responsibilities, minimum qualifications, number of hours per week, and hourly wage.

Several libraries make use of established programs to provide homework assistants. These include Literacy Volunteers of America, AmeriCorps VISTA, Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, America Reads, Learning Is ForEver, and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. RUSA and YALSA recommend working with the National Honor Society to recruit teen homework volunteers.

College-aged helpers make good role models, too, especially in communities where dropout rates are high. Saint Paul (Minn.) Public Library recruits young adult assistants through local college work-study programs, which often pay up to 100% of the homework helper’s salary. Education majors and members of the Future Teachers of America work especially well with younger kids. College students may even treat the homework center as a laboratory for testing their own teaching and disciplinary skills.

Library staff also welcome the assistance of teenaged homework helpers. Despite occasional problems with teens forming cliques or flirting with each other, high schoolers perform as well as, if not better than, their older counterparts. At the La Habra branch of Orange County (Calif.) Public Libraries, sophomores, juniors, and seniors are recruited to help younger kids with homework. Once they gain enough experience, they can become tutor captains responsible for checking in and matching students with an appropriate helper. In a 2003 study of teen-assisted homework programs, Virginia Walter and I found that student helpers gain a sense of pride from serving their community, especially in low-income neighborhoods. We also learned that teen helpers are more socially competent and better prepared for the job market as a result of their homework center experience.

Benefits of homework-help programs

Students may develop meaningful relationships with homework helpers. In the library, young people have an opportunity to see adults in a nonclassroom, nonparental role. Most students appreciate the assistance they receive and understand that these adults are dedicating their time to help. Teenage homework helpers often bring hope and encouragement to neighborhoods where few positive role models exist. They prove that succeeding in school is possible. As one program coordinator explained, sometimes tutors become mentors.

Helping young people succeed in school can be very rewarding for the helpers, too. A retired teacher in San Diego told me she provides homework help because she wants to enrich children’s minds. Another helper, a retired administrator in Sacramento, California, revels in seeing youngsters’ “eyes light up” when they suddenly understand their homework. Likewise, a grandmother in King County, Washington, said she enjoys seeing students grow mentally as well as physically. “It’s a lot more fun helping other kids do their homework than it was helping my own daughters,” she joked.

CINDY MEDIAVILLA managed a homework center for Orange (Calif.) Public Library in the early 1990s and has been studying after-school homework programs ever since. Mediavilla has an MLS and a doctorate in library science from UCLA and was a public librarian for 18 years.

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How do you help a person see and believe in their capabilities? What does it take to build relationships that engage and empower? Ask Homework Help tutors! These caring adults not only help boost student grades, understanding, and confidence, but forge partnerships that have a lasting impact. Read about neighborhood tutors offering wisdom, patience, and life-changing lessons at the library.

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Local libraries offer free homework assistance

Hennepin County Library is offering Homework Hub, in-person homework help available at nine libraries – as well as online tools that students need for their homework, such as databases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a calculator. Assistance in literacy and subjects such as reading, math, history, and language arts is provided free by tutors and volunteers on a drop-in basis at nine libraries: Augsburg Park (Richfield), Brookdale (Brooklyn Center) and Hopkins in suburban Hennepin County, and East Lake, Franklin, Hosmer, Central, North Regional, and Sumner libraries in Minneapolis. For Homework Hub hours and more info, see: www.hclib.org/homework. Hennepin County Library is also offering Homework Rescue. Homework Rescue is staffed by certified tutors, who will help students with homework in core subjects – math (algebra I and II, geometry, trigonometry and calculus), science (biology, chemistry, physics and earth science), social studies, and English/language arts. For grades 3-12. Available in English and Spanish, 1-11 p.m., seven days a week. Students can access the online service, which is made possible by the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA), via the Hennepin County Library website at: www.hclib.org/homework.

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The library has a variety of volunteer opportunities for adults and teens. Support your library’s daily operations, programs and services.

Adult volunteers

Current opportunities.

There are many ways to support the library you love, including:

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Find a full list of current volunteer opportunities.

Apply to volunteer at a library

We have a variety of volunteer opportunities for adults. Support your library’s daily operations, programs and services.

How to apply

• Complete a volunteer application .
• View the online orientation.
• Schedule an interview.

Questions? Call Volunteer Services at 612-543-8633 . The phone line is staffed Monday - Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Please leave a voicemail if we miss your call and expect a return call within 24 hours.

Omnitheater tickets

Library volunteers who have worked hours can receive up to two free tickets to the Omnitheater at the Science Museum as well as free admission to the museum. 

Learn more about getting tickets .

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Volunteers needed to participate in usability sessions to help improve the library website. Learn more about web usability sessions .

Complete court-ordered community service

Hennepin County Library is not currently accepting applications for Court-ordered community service.

To fulfill a requirement for court, probation or a diversion program, community service volunteer hours may be available at Hennepin County libraries for youth (ages 12 and older) and adults, depending on location, time needed, and volunteer openings. All positions require good organizational and communication skills.

In order for your request to be processed, your court case must be in Hennepin County, and you must complete the application a minimum of two weeks prior to your deadline for hours.

If you are a college student applying for service learning hours, please use the adult volunteer application .

• Complete an online application for community service .
• The volunteer coordinator will contact you.

Call 612-543-8817 if you haven't been contacted within 5 days.

Join a local Friends chapter

Local Friends groups are volunteer, membership-based organizations at individual libraries. Varied in size and activities, all share a common goal of supporting and advocating for their local libraries.

Learn more about joining your local Friends group

Teen volunteers

We have a limited number of volunteer opportunities at some libraries for youth ages 14-18. Positions vary depending on the library.

• Check with your local Hennepin County library about volunteer opportunities for teens.
• If there are volunteer openings, complete the  teen volunteer application (PDF)  and bring it to the library.
• A library staff member will contact you.

Questions? Call Volunteer Services at 612-543-8633 .