HAND and PBH

When Harvard students tutor Cambridge kids, they do so by participating in one of two campus public service organizations: Phillips Brooks House (PBH) and the Public Service Program's (PSP) largest component, the House and Neighborhood Development project (HAND).

HAND places student tutors in the Cambridge Public Schools through committees in each of the 13 houses. Each house is paired with a Cambridge elementary school, explains Public Service Program Student Coordinator Milbert Shin '87-'88. HAND volunteers from all the houses can also tutor at the Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School.

PBH's education programs function differently. PBH recruits students interested in tutoring and then channels them to the Cambridge School Volunteers, a city-sponsored program which is directed by former PBH Education Committee Chairman Alan Brickman '76.

"For the [PBH] Education Committee, it's pretty much straight referral," says PBH Program Consultant Jane Rosegrant '85. Cambridge School Volunteers "is a very well set-up volunteer program, so we're very comfortable sending people there," Rosegrant says.

PBH also runs its own programs in Boston schools. "We have a lot more people in our own programs," she says. Rosegrant estimated that currently, PBH has 25 volunteers working in Cambridge and about 80 working in educational programs in Boston schools and housing projects.

Public Service Program Student Coordinator Roberta Kellman '88 says HAND and PBH also differ in their recruiting techniques. PBH posters in the Yard and holds open houses, while HAND advertises largely through word of mouth in the houses, Kellman says. Consequently, HAND is more closely tied to house and college life.

Rosegrant says, "There have been some differences, but those are lessening now. PBH is trying to combat the image that you have to spend your life here. We're trying to make PBH more accessible," says Rosegrant.

"The two programs complement each other," Shin says. "There have been rises and falls in the two programs--there have been times when PSP has been bigger than PBH. I'm interested in having the programs work together."

PBH is much older than PSP, which was founded in 1982 with funds from the University, and it is currently larger.

All in all, though, "once you're involved, it really doesn't matter which organization you're working with," Kellman says.