Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Writers: The Center for New Americans provides free English classes and many other services for immigrants and refugees, including career prep and legal assistance. These services are essential for making your way in a new country, and formal language classes are the best way to learn in an intensive and effective way. I am proud that Northampton offers these classes, and I want to support these efforts. I also want to get myself to write more poetry! Please give what you can to help new immigrants.
When I lived in Israel in 1998, I took 6 hours of intensive Hebrew every other day for 5 months, as part of a program that was mostly made up of new immigrants to the country. It is amazing to me that this kind of program isn't standard for all new immigrants to the United States, since knowing the native language is so important for getting a job, navigating public services, feeling part of the community, etc.
Thanks so much for a donation of any size.
Rebecca
