Since February 2024, local community volunteers have been teaching English at the Acton Emergency Family Shelter at the Minuteman Inn on Hosmer Street along Route 2. These volunteer-driven English classes are now held up as a model for other shelters. Community Action for Refugee Emergency (CARE) is planning to apply the same method for shelters in multiple hotels in Woburn.
The Acton shelter opened at the end of November 2023; all the rooms are now fully occupied. There are twenty-six families – 88 people, about 50 of whom are children ages newborn to high school. Forty-six percent are Haitian Creole speaking, 27% are Spanish speaking, 27% are local English speaking families. Families move out when they find a job (after they get their work permit) and housing, and then new families move in.
Piña Madera, Acton resident and Spanish teacher at the Francis W. Parker Charter School, volunteered to train the volunteer teachers and oversee the English classes. Acton-Boxborough United Way coordinates these English classes and children’s activities at the Acton shelter, as well as all community donations. More information on donations needed can be found here, and on volunteering opportunities at myabuw.org. Click on “volunteer now” and search for “shelter”.
The program aims to meet the needs of a changing and varied population of mostly adult students, and is intentionally flexible in topics and scheduling. Classes welcome all learners, including children and babies.
Classes are onsite, meet five days per week, and are run by two volunteers each time. Classes are energetic and interactive, and prioritize useful phrases and repetition of key words over teaching grammar. Students engage in games, songs, role-playing activities, and plenty of movement. If a student misses a day, they can comfortably return whenever possible.
Typically eight to ten adult students and some kids attend each day.
Volunteers sign up for shifts each week and stay connected by entering information about each class in an online log used for planning purposes.Topics are adapted to the needs, interests, and level of the students, based on input from the shelter manager and the case workers. Students help each other (in the beginning often with translating instructions). Participants report much laughter, connection, dancing and smiles during the classes. They say even the kids happily join whenever they are not in school, “bringing even more enthusiasm and joy!” Shelter staff say, “The students now proudly greet us in English, and try to answer our questions in English whenever they can, even though we do speak their native language! It’s amazing to see.” A second round of training for new volunteer teachers is scheduled for April 28 from 3:30 – 5:30 in West Acton. Interested in joining the fun? Find more information here. No previous experience necessary.