It Isn't What We Do, It's The Way That We Do It

Steve Portlock was one of Amity's founding volunteers when it was created in 1974.  Steve was a qualified teacher and at that time, was developing his career as social worker.

This combination of social work and teaching skills was unusual at the time but was a powerful asset in terms of Amity's policy of Social Support, in which Steve had a major role in shaping.

Between 1976 and 1982, Steve was one of our Supervising Tutors, and encapsulated some of his experiences in this role in a short paper called "it isn't what we do, it's the way that we do it".  This is thoughtful review of Amity's approach, its students and the challenges and obstacles they face in developing their literacy skills.  The paper also includes two detailed Case Studies which provide useful insights into many of the challenges facing volunteers today.

It is for these reasons that Amity has decided to re-publish the paper on our web site, and we are most grateful to Steve Portlock for his agreement to do so.

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Click on the link It Isn't What We Do, It's The Way That We Do It