Meeting One - ESOL

October 27, 2003

Present: Jim Ayres - Center for New Americans, Hollyn Green-The Literacy Project, Joe Panzica-The Literacy Project, Laura Battles - The International Language Institute, Ken White - ABE/Holyoke Community College, Tracy Kellam - HCAC Family Partnerships Program, Kit Carpenter ESOL/Greenfield Community College, Barbara Black - Northampton Even Start. 

DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION AND

COORDINATION OF SERVICES

[ Create more effective systems to disseminate information and build relationships to facilitate information and referrals.

[ Propose and implement ways to improve coordination of services.

Fragmented and disjointed system of providers	COSA and Franklin County Resource Network (FCRN)- participation in informational referral and outreach
Agencies sometimes serve different populations. This makes it hard for agencies to make referrals and to share a common mission	FCAC and HCAC - Hotlines and referral mechanisms in place. Everywoman's Center - UMass
HCC has free ABE-College program and because of lack of communication with agencies and a lack of outreach beyond East Hampton the slots aren't filled	HCC's -ABE-College Transition Program provides mentoring and advising as a subsidized program. Has 18 slots available.
New Ground	At ILI goal statements are set with students and they are helped with referrals, phone calls for transportation, and can coordinate with HCAC
Distance	Juntos is model for coordination of ABE providers serving greater Holyoke
Sharing of slim resources	The Reunion Center in East Hampton
Lack of willingness to collaborate	Websites
Lack of willingness to re-structure	SABES has existing network capacity

¨ Link Juntos to TLP Community Planning web site and vice versa

¨ Juntos' model           FCRN/COSA/ABE Community Planning

¨ Form a Regional ABE/ESOL Partnership that includes Franklin/Hampshire/Hampden and meet quarterly

¨ Make use of free college transition slots (18)

¨ Provide GED Scholarships

¨ Adopt philosophy for case coordination and headquarter a management system

¨ Get DSS and DTA to the planning table

¨ Get municipalities and UMass at the planning table

ESOL CAPACITY BUILDING

[ Explore feasibility of expanding services to students on waiting lists such as tutorials, computer classes, conversation groups, additional supports and check-ins

[ Advocate for additional resources for adult ESOL and citizenship programs

*It was decided that the core group would work on this in-house

TARGETED OUTREACH AND TRANSITION SUPPORT

[ Work collaboratively to develop formal and informal targeted outreach approaches appropriate to under-served low English proficiency adults (LEP) and particular ethnic and language groups

[ and LEP who are under-employed and unemployed

[ Plan programming to facilitate successful transitions from ESOL programs to work or college, from public assistance programs

[ Identify funding sources to create new transition support programs

¨      Timing of resources

¨      Waiting lists

¨      Effectiveness of outreach

¨      Lack of funding for multi-lingual support staff

¨      Lack of support services for families

**Need to cite resources here

¨ To research the demographic make-up of waiting lists including who is on them, how long is the wait before person enrolls or drops off,  ESOL level at time of enrollment, services utilized while waiting…

¨ To explore the feasibility of work-site based ESOL or work-oriented ESOL (explore need to balance work language with community language)

¨ To explore community need to expand transition programs to work and college, if applicable identify funding sources 

¨ To understand how ESOL services succeed/fail from the perspective of :

a) social service provision

b) cultural orientation