Our Mission
The City Tutors is New York City's educational subway system, connecting learners, mentors, tutors, and communities across all five boroughs with free academic and career support. Like the subway, we break down barriers and open access, ensuring every New Yorker, especially first-generation students and underserved communities, can navigate their own path to academic and professional success.
Expand Support to Partner Sites
We expand support by partnering and staffing programs that work with underserved communities, and that have limited or no capacity to provide academic and professional support.
Enhance Support for Partner Sites
We enhance support by helping the sites deliver support to the communities they serve.
Empower New Yorkers
We empower more New Yorkers to serve through tutoring and mentoring by offering training for those with no formal experience, by developing a portfolio of site partnerships that ranges in time and subject options, by focusing on the tutors’ and mentors’ growth professionally, and by helping volunteers connect with other like-minded individuals.
In New York, The City Tutors
Let our tutors, partner sites, and the students they serve tell you about their experience with the City Tutors.
What if you had to choose between your education and your family?
I’ve lived that choice.
In 1996, my mom and I arrived in New York. We had just been resettled by HIAS. We were Litvaks from Lithuania, granted religious asylum. I was seven years old. My mom was in her thirties, stepping into the unknown with nothing but courage and a child to care for.
We didn’t speak the language. We didn’t understand the systems. We settled in a small immigrant enclave where everyone was trying their best but had limited access to information. My mom had been a chemical analyst and a young national poet laureate. Here, she could only find work that paid minimum wage. She needed ESL classes. She needed help finding a job that matched her skills. But we didn’t know where to go.
I was learning math while learning English. I needed help too. But there was none. We relied on family, but they were just as new to the country as we were. We made it through because we had no other choice.
Years later, I got to college. But my mom was still working the same job. She still needed support. And I was doing my schoolwork while trying to help her rewrite resumes, fill out forms, figure things out. I constantly felt torn. Every time I focused on school, I felt guilty. Every time I helped her, I felt like I was falling behind.
I was lucky. I eventually figured it out. But luck should not be the plan. We should not be asking young people to choose between being a student and being a lifeline for their families.
At The City Tutors, we are building a different system. One where no one is left behind. One where the whole family is supported.
Because behind every learner is a story like mine. A parent trying to rebuild. A child trying to succeed without letting anyone down. A family trying to move forward together.
💡 Here is what our model looks like:
Academic tutoring for elementary through high school students
GED and ESL support for parents
Career mentorship for college learners and beyond
We meet people where they are. Virtually or in-person. Through schools, nonprofits, and community partners across the city. We’ve created a network that works like the NYC subway—always in motion, always connected, always reaching the people who need it most.
Because success should not be about chance. It should be about access. It should be built, supported, and shared.
No one should have to choose between their education and their family.
Not anymore. Not with us standing beside them.
—Garri Rivkin, Executive Director & Founder, The City Tutors