Every day, the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights opens its doors to some of the bravest people you will ever meet. They all have distinct stories, some harder than others with harrowing tales of crossing deserts in darkness or tumultuous seas in yolas to be here. Others are “luckier” to be reunited with their families under more auspicious circumstances. But every single one of them left places they know, family they love and countries they feel connected to, to arrive in an unfamiliar place that especially recently, has become more and more unwelcoming by the minute.
Our Education Department provides free, high quality adult education opportunities to the immigrant community. Through our classes, our community members learn English (which helps them advocate for themselves better AND search for better employment) and prepare for their citizenship exams and interviews.
About 90-95% of clients that take our civics classes and have applied, become US citizens.
Our students reported several promotions and raises this year and credited increased language skills from NMCIR’s ESOL classes as the reason they received them.
As the community’s needs grew we expanded our team and our schedule more than tripling our class offerings. Classes now run in the mornings, evenings and weekends making the classes more accessible to everyone.
And did we mention we do this all for free?
We’re aiming to raise $5000 for each of our departments from now until the end of the year and our students, teachers and Education Department needs you to make that happen. With $5000 we can provide ESOL classes to 50 students over 3 months. That translates to increased wealth, stability, and confidence for our clients.
