Fall 2015 Community Partners
SPAN 304
Community Partner
Time Frame
Sign-Up
Ascentria Care Alliance –
Unaccompanied Refugee Minors
Program
Assumption Center – Third Day
Latino Education Institute (LEI) – Club E
Pernet Family Health – ESL Tutoring
Wednesday, 4-5:30p
CBL Fair
Tuesday, 2:30-4:45p
Tuesday or Thursday evening. 6-8:30p
Create schedule based on participants’
availability
Office
CBL Fair
CBL Fair
Ascentria Care Alliance - Unaccompanied Refugee Minors Program
http://www.ascentria.org/refugee-youth
11 Shattuck Street, Worcester MA 01605
Staff Contact:
Kristen Penkala
kpenkala@ascentria.org
774-243-3065 (office phone)
774-437-8895 (work cell)
Organization Description:
Ascentria Care Alliance is one of the largest social service organizations in New England. Ascentria
serves children, youth and families; persons with developmental disabilities, mental illness and
deafness; persons who are economically disadvantaged; refugees, including unaccompanied refugee
minors; and older adults. Unaccompanied Refugee Minors are children under the age of 18 who are
resettled alone in the United States, without a parent, relative, or other responsible adult to take care of
them. The URM program is a long-term foster care program that serves youth with comprehensive
services designed to assist with their resettlement and adjustment to their new culture, provide for
them while they pursue educational goals, and prepare them for eventual independence. Services are
tailored to the needs of refugee youth, blending their cultural identity with their new American
environment.
CBL Opportunities:
Afterschool Tutoring Program
Meeting once a week, CBL volunteers provide homework help, English language tutoring, Spanish
grammar and writing tutoring, and mentorship to the Ascentria youth. The tutoring program meets on
Wednesdays from 4-5:30pm at the Ascentria office. The program needs approximately 10 tutors to
work with Spanish-speaking adolescents. Volunteers must be comfortable conversing and writing in
Spanish and English. Ascentria clients have varying levels of English, education, and literacy. Ascentria
requires a high level of commitment and confidentiality regarding our clients. An outgoing personality
will also be useful in this role in order to engage your partner effectively. An application and CORI
background check are required and volunteers must attend an orientation session before beginning.
Ascentria staff will review applications and select volunteers based on the needs of our clients.
Pre-Service Requirements: Application Form, CORI, Orientation
Volunteers needed: 15-20
Assumption Center – Third Day
http://www.assumptionsisters.org/
16 Vineyard Street
Worcester, MA 01603
Staff Contact:
Sr. Catherine Anne Soley, RA
center@assumptionsisters.org
508-767-1356
Organization Description:
The Assumption Center in Worcester is a ministry of the Religious of the Assumption. In partnership
with the parish of St. Peter-St. Andrew in the city’s Main South area, the Center serves the various
educational needs of the neighborhood through English as a Second Language classes for adult learners,
after-school mentoring and literacy programs, the Kate O’Neill spiritual book library, Girls With DREAMS,
GIFT Lecture Series and a Vietnamese summer camp. In addition, the Center also sponsors a Knitting
Circle and a community garden which involve many volunteers from around the city. All the programs
were founded by the Sisters and are carried out by the Sisters, AMAs and volunteers from Assumption
College, Clark University and College of the Holy Cross as well as a good number of adults from the
parish and the area.
The headquarters of the Sisters’ lay volunteer program, the Assumption Mission Associates (AMA), is
housed at the Assumption Center. A project of the Religious of the Assumption since the 1950s, AMA
has been particularly active in the U.S. since the 1980s. Since its move to Worcester in 2001, AMA-USA
has sent approximately 100 young people to mission sites both overseas and in this country. Currently
the AMAs serve with sisters in Worcester, MA and in Chaparral, NM in the USA and in the Philippines
and England, internationally.
In addition to the AMA office, the Center provides housing for the AMAs themselves, who live together
in the Cana community along with other young adults who are committed to intentional living. The
Cana community shares meals and prayer regularly with the community of Assumption Sisters. The
AMAs offer service at Assumption Center, the parish of St. Peter-St. Andrew’s, and other neighborhood
organizations that serve the disadvantaged.
CBL Opportunities:
THIRD DAY
In the fall of 2013, a third day was added to the after school programming with an emphasis on building
literacy. With the help of AMAs and other volunteers, the center opens to the students something of
what they have found in the pages of books. The students are offered a variety of genres and subjects,
given the support they need to move into longer periods of reading, and then have an opportunity to
share their ideas. There is time for writing as well. Sometimes there is a read-aloud or have a guest
reader. But the focus is always on providing the students with blocks of time to enjoy reading. Students
from Spanish 304 will work with the English Language Learners and Spanish-speaking students at Third
Day. The program meets on Tuesdays from 2:30p-4:45p at St Peter’s.
Pre-Service Requirements: CORI Form
Number of Volunteers Needed: 3-4 for Third Day
The Latino Education Institute, Club Educación (Club E)
http://www.worcester.edu/LEI/default.aspx
Worcester State University
486 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA 01602
Staff Contact:
Steve Favulli, Program Coordinator
sfavulli1@worcester.edu
508-798-6507 ext. 106
Organization Description:
The Latino Education Institute (LEI) at Worcester State University (WSU) was founded in 2000 by a
partnership of community leaders to provide outcomes-based development programs in education,
literacy, leadership, civic engagement and health. Our mission is to:
(1) Improve the academic achievement and well-being of Latino students (grades K-16) and their
families throughout the city of Worcester. Each year the LEI reaches over 1500 youth and their families
with education and advocacy programs and hundreds more through city-wide partnerships with the
Worcester Public School district as well as other community-based agencies.
(2) Community Outreach. LEI outreach provides innovative solutions to families, who are looking for
alternative ways to increase their English language literacy skills, connect with other families who share
similar experiences, and for those new to our country, navigate local systems and resources.
CBL Opportunities:
Club E promotes parental involvement in their children’s education by engaging parents in English-as-aSecond-Language classes that enhance English literacy and communication skills. Parents also
participate in training in the areas of computer, financial, and health literacy through a serious of
seasonal workshops. Club E strives to increase the educational levels of parents and adults in order to
fully realize the overall academic goals of the entire family. This program promotes a strong family
involvement component and provides on-site academic support to the children of participants.
Club E takes place at Worcester State University on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:008:30PM. Volunteers may choose to participate in one or two days per week but they must maintain
consistency throughout the program. With a consistent schedule, students will serve as instructional
aides to classroom teachers and be able to assist with lesson plans and activities.
Pre-service Requirements: None specified
Number of Volunteers Needed: 6-12
Pernet Family Health Service- ESL Tutoring
http://www.pernetfamilyhealth.org
237 Millbury Street, Worcester, MA 01610
Staff Contact:
Emily Linhares, Director of Family & Community Development (primary contact)
elinhares@pernetfamilyhealth.org
508-755-1228 ext. 224
Organization Description:
Pernet Family Health Service is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, DPH-certified home-health agency working with
individuals and families to provide family-centered, health and social services that lead to long term
strengthening and enhancement of family and community life.
CBL opportunities: ESL Tutoring – see below for more information
Pre-service Requirements: CORI form, Volunteer application, Confidentially form
Volunteers needed: 5-10
Program Worksheet: ESL Tutoring Program
General Info
The ESL (English as a Second Language) program is established to provide members of the Worcester
community with the vocabulary and grammatical structures needed for everyday living.
Participants will work one on one or one on two with an ESL volunteer to develop language
acquisition and cognitive language skills through the use of sound instructional, and writing
techniques. The ESL program provides the English Language Learner (ELL) the opportunity to grasp
the social and cultural aspects of the English language through the teaching of reading, writing,
listening & speaking.
Goals
The goal of the ESL program is to help participants develop language skills necessary to be successful
as a member of society. This can be done most effectively by meeting the following objectives:
 Provide instruction to each student in the ESL program in listening, speaking, reading, and
writing.
 Familiarize the ESL student with the varied cultures and customs of the United States while
promoting their own ethnic pride through cultural diversity and sensitivity.
 Work towards a proficiency in the English language.
 To reach a level of proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and to help them in their everyday
life.
Activities
 Organize volunteers to sign up and be trained in our ESL orientation for tutors.
 Recruit participants for the program who are able to meet with the tutors and can get to Pernet
on their own.
 Pair/group up volunteers to participants based on their schedule
 Have the volunteers meet with the participants on a regular basis to work on the participant’s
proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and to help them in their everyday life.
How many days per week (on average) will this activity occur? Once a week
How many hours per day (on average) will this activity occur? 1.5
When does this activity begin? Individual start days will depend on when the volunteer and participant
can meet. Will start setting up tutoring times in September.
When does this activity end? End dates will depend on the volunteer, participant and the level of
proficiency.
Results and Measurement
Explain the change you expect as a result of the above activity:
 Stay with the tutoring
 Improve in speaking
 Improve in writing
What is the measurable change that you are expecting?*
 There will be a minimum of 4 participants engaging in the program
 50% of participants will come on a regular basis
 60% of participates will show improvement in their verbal communication
 40% of participants will show improvement in their written communication
 70% of participants will feel more connected to their community and feel confident about
accessing resources
Instrument
Specific tool to collect information
 Attendance Sheets
 Verbal Testing
 Worksheets


Day-to-day communication with volunteer and community
Pre-Post surveys
Beneficiaries
Estimate the number of people this will serve
We expect to serve 7-15 people in the Worcester community, focusing on participants who live in the
Green Island Neighborhood.
*Since this is a pilot program we are not sure how accurate our measurement goals are, they will be
changed accordingly after an assessment of the program is complete.