John Monfredo: ACE Continues to Make a Difference in the Community
Saturday, September 06, 2014
ACE will be holding its annual Fall Fundraiser on Saturday, September 20th. The evening will be spiced with African food, dance, drumming and an exciting auction of items from all over the world. This event will take place at Clark University’s Tilton Hall from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. Tickets are being sold for $50.00 for adults and $30.00 for students and children. Anyone interested may call 508 799-3653 or go on line at [email protected]. This year’s fundraising efforts will go towards ACE’s mentoring for Empowerment and Exchange Program.
Just recently ACE held its annual meeting at the Worcester Public Library and for me it was hard to believe that eight years have passed. I remember when this organization began in 2006 with 30-40 students, and now it has grown to 89 with 219 days of programming this past year. Perseverance and determination has been the key to this marvelous group’s success.
Co-founders of the organization are Kaska Yawo and Olga Valdman and they are still activity involved. Kaska is now Executive Director, and Olga, now a U. Mass Medical graduate and active board member, is a physician in the Worcester area. Kaska came to this country as a Liberian refugee himself - thus giving him first-hand experience of the challenges our students face.
Mr. Yawo and Ms. Valdman founded the organization after seeing many students from the African community struggling tremendously with their schoolwork due to gaps in education and being English language learners. Both witnessed trauma and the challenges of transitioning to a new culture that saw what these students were going through and how it greatly impacted their lives.
ACE then and now still reaches out to children who come from countries in conflict having very little formal education. Some are in their teens and cannot read or do basic math – these are the children ACE continues to reach out to make a difference in their lives.
In addition to meeting the needs of children, ACE has started ESL classes for parents to become U.S. Citizens. ACE provides three English classes and one Citizenship class each week. As Kaska stated, “These adults have identified learning English as their number one priority in order to obtain citizenship, secure employment and become involved in the broader Worcester Community.
According to Lila Milukas, After School Program Coordinator, “The after school program is going into its second year of being sponsored by the City of Worcester through the Community Development Block Grant. Fifty six students attended the program this past year and the program hopes for more students this year. We engage our students in an hour and a half hour of homework and academic support and then the students get to participate in a workshop two days a week and the gym the other two days. It is really important that our students get the academic support as well as the engagement in community resources that they may not get otherwise. It has also been great to have Worcester as our biggest support for this program.”
Ms. Miluksas who also heads up the Mentoring for Empowerment and Exchange program (MEE) acknowledged that ACE has three active mentors and mentees (matches) and four inactive. She wants to get the four inactive matches reactive for the coming year. ACE is also recruiting mentors to make 20 matches by June of 2015. The program provides one on one support for students once a week and additional monthly activities for all to participate in. The goal of MEE is to give students the opportunity to work on any goal with an adult from the Worcester Community who may have experience and or advice that helps the students move closer to reaching their goals.
ACE also served over 50 students this summer for the summer program and had a reading component and a Workforce Development Program. Teachers helped the middle and high school students complete their required summer reading assignments and taught pre-employment skills and financial literacy skills to high school students. In addition, the top Workforce Development students worked part time in the ACE office.
Another aspect of the ACE organization is the “Family Outreach” for the outreach workers are community leaders from each of the four major ethnic groups represented among the students. The workers visit families and assist them with services, basic needs and in finding housing.
This marvelous organization had in 2014 182 volunteers who donated 503 hours per week during the school year for a total of 21, 372 total hours for the year. Other facts on the volunteers: 30% are of African descent, five volunteers are ACE alumni and ten volunteers are current ACE students.
Kaska Yawo, Executive Director, said it best, “It has been eight amazing years since ACE was founded and we have seen 48 high school seniors graduate, and a majority of them go on to college. Despite countless obstacles, these students have never wavered in their determination to better themselves and their community through education. We are also very proud to see students’ parents participate in ACE’s English for Speakers of Other Language classes. Several parents have already taken USCIS exam and have become U.S. Citizens.”
This is an organization that has enriched the lives of children and has given them the support to achieve their dreams. In order for the important work of this program to continue and expand it needs the continuing support of the Worcester Community.
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