HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. – After being inactive for a semester, UNC Habitat for Humanity started providing free tutoring for children in Orange County Schools again last week in partnership with the Hillsborough Police Department.

UNC Habitat for Humanity began offering the free tutoring in Hillsborough in 2008.

“It was a way to follow up with the houses that we built,” said Mimi Xu, the UNC Habitat for Humanity tutoring chairwoman.

The program went steady for three years, but came to an abrupt stop last semester.

Cpl. Tereasa King, the Hillsborough Police Department community policing coordinator who oversees the tutoring program, said it stopped last semester due to transportation issues with the tutors, leadership changes within UNC Habitat for Humanity and a lapse in communication between her and the tutors.

“They were supposed to start, but then they just didn’t show up,” King said.

Xu said that most of the volunteers are first-years and sophomores who do not have cars. “We’re always in need of drivers,” she said.

In November, Xu began working with King to get the program back underway. “They needed someone to organize everything,” Xu said.

The first tutoring session for this school year was held on Jan. 23.

King said even though they started the program late this year, she has high hopes for its success.

“I think that Mimi is going to be really good. I’m really excited about working with her.”

Xu said that working with the police department has made things a lot easier.

“She [King] basically coordinates everything on the students end, where as I take care of everything on the tutoring end,” Xu said.

The Police Department provides the space for the tutoring and advertises the program to the community. King said that there are no significant costs associated with the tutoring for the town because UNC Habitat for Humanity provides the tutors.

Sarah Anderson, a sophomore at UNC, started volunteering as a tutor this year. “It’s worth the effort,” she said. “The kids are all great kids, they really want help.”

Angela Reyes, 7, a second-grader at Cameron Park Elementary, said the tutors help her with her homework. “Sometimes I get mixed up when I’m reading,” she said.

Cierra Paylor, 10, a fourth-grader at Central Elementary, said it is only her second time being tutored but she has already seen an improvement in her grades.

Anderson said that she was drawn to volunteer with the program because she likes that UNC Habitat for Humanity continues to help the families they build for.

“Once they build houses in the area, they don’t leave,” she said.

Xu said UNC Habitat for Humanity is working on starting another tutoring program in the Phoenix Place neighborhood, a subdivision in the Rogers Road community in Chapel Hill where they are building homes right now.

“I’m not sure if and when that will take off,” Xu said, “but the Hillsborough one should continue, assuming nothing goes wrong.”