Dyson Provides $735,000 to 5 English as Second Language Programs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2007

CONTACT
Michelle Rhone-Collins
Beacon Community Center
845.831.6180

Denise Quis
Center of the Square
845.471.3068

Linda Kaplan
First Presbyterian Church of Millerton
518.789.4664

Greta Boeringer
Hudson Area Association Library
518.828.1792

Eric Gullickson
SUNY New Paltz
845.257.3245

Stephen Densmore
The Dyson Foundation
845.234.8713

MILLBROOK—The Dyson Foundation has committed $735,000 to fund five new or enhanced English as a Second Language (ESL) programs designed to address the growing need for adult and family-oriented English language classes among the Mid-Hudson Valley’s burgeoning immigrant population.

Located throughout the Mid-Hudson Valley, ESL grant program recipients include the Beacon Community Center, $195,000; Poughkeepsie’s Center of the Square, $105,000; Hudson Area Association Library, $180,000; First Presbyterian Church of Millerton, $30,000; and the State University of New York at New Paltz, $225,000.

The grants provide three years of funding for classes targeting the needs of immigrant and migrant families, in most cases providing them with assistance overcoming common attendance barriers such as transportation and child care. Each program utilizes unique approaches to teaching English to immigrants, from a cooking-oriented theme at Center of the Square to an intensive, immersion approach at SUNY New Paltz.

“Given the changing demographics of the Mid-Hudson Valley, and given the barriers that non-English speakers face, the Dyson Foundation felt it was important to support English language acquisition as a way of removing some of those barriers,” said Michell Speight, director of programs at the Dyson Foundation. “We are very pleased to be awarding multi-year grants to these five organizations to help expand and enhance the availability of ESL programs in our region.”

• Michelle Rhone-Collins, executive director of the Beacon Community Center, said the grant will help the Center draw a growing but isolated group of people into the community. “Within Beacon there’s a large immigrant population that’s not seen and not heard. This will help them to be a part of this community,” said Rhone-Collins, who cited studies demonstrating that increased English proficiency among immigrant families correlates with greater success financially, socially and educationally. (According to the 2000 Census, fluent English-speaking immigrants earn nearly double that of non-English speaking workers and have substantially lower unemployment rates.)

• Aileen Hanel, coordinator of the Language Immersion Program at SUNY New Paltz, said the grant will allow the college to provide intensive, “real world oriented” English immersion classes for nearly 390 individuals and families over a three-year period. While many immigrant children are currently learning English through school district based ESL classes, she pointed out, the adults in their families are often unable to help their children with homework or address other important economic and cultural issues due to a lack of English language skills. “These intensive weekend classes will not only help them with English, they’ll get help with life skills. There will be a cultural component as well,” Hanel said. “This grant will allow us to serve a huge community that, so far, we haven’t been able to.”

• Greta Boeringer, director of the Hudson Area Association Library, said her communitycentered library will partner with the highly-effective nonprofit Literacy Connections to help address what she sees as “an intense community need” in the City of Hudson. Although most of the ESL programs will primarily serve the Valley’s rapidly growing Hispanic population, Boeringer noted that Hudson has seen a significant influx of Bengalis over the last several years and that the program will be tailored to help that group attain English language skills as well.

• Denise Quis, president of Center of the Square, said the Poughkeepsie based community service organization will expand upon an already effective and unique ESL program—a series of family-based cooking classes—that utilizes a former Culinary Institute of America grad who is also a trained ESL instructor. “We did it last year and it was an overwhelming success,” said Quis. “In our classes it’s more of a working language. Everyone likes to eat and cook.”

• Linda Kaplan of the First Presbyterian Church of Millerton said the grant will allow her church in the rural Dutchess County village to continue providing a popular ESL program to a surprisingly high immigrant population. With 51 current students enrolled in the year around ESL program, Kaplan said, church leaders began offering the classes in 2005 as a way of crossing the language barrier with a new segment of their community. “We felt there was a need to reach out and welcome these people and make them feel at home,” Kaplan said.

Last spring, the Dyson Foundation issued a request for proposals from Mid-Hudson Valley nonprofits to address a perceived need for expanded and enhanced family-focused English as a Second Language programs in the region. At its September board meeting, the Dyson Foundation’s Board of Directors approved the five ESL grants.

Established in 1957, the Dyson Foundation is a private, family-directed grantmaking foundation led by Robert R. Dyson, who has served as the Foundation’s President since 2000. Headquartered in Millbrook, the Foundation awards grants through a diverse regional funding program serving the Mid-Hudson Valley’s Dutchess, Ulster, Columbia, Greene, Putnam and Orange counties. The Foundation’s assets stand at approximately $337 million and, in 2006, it awarded grants in excess of $18.4 million.

For more information about this press release, contact:
Michelle Rhone-Collins, Beacon Community Center, 845-831-6180
Denise Quis, Center of the Square, 845-471-3068
Linda Kaplan, First Presbyterian Church of Millerton, 518-789-4664
Greta Boeringer, Hudson Area Association Library, 518-828-1792
Eric Gullickson, SUNY New Paltz, 845-257-3245
Stephen Densmore, The Dyson Foundation, 845-234-8713