Immigrant Home English Learning Program

The St. Louis region ranks third among the nation's top 20 metros for foreign-born population growth. IHELP provides one-on-one, free, in-home/virtual services to immigrants and refugees lacking access to needed educational opportunities. IHELP students are often negatively impacted by a lack of language skills, the challenges of navigating the systems of a new society, a deficit of child care, limited transportation, prohibitive work schedules, and trauma from past experiences. A number of immigrant children require ESL and cultural learning in addition to regular schooling and experience increased difficulty in learning math, social studies, science, and other subjects. Many schools and districts struggle to adequately address the particular needs of ESL students or provide extra resources for their families. For both adult and youth students, other educational opportunities are often at set times, in a group setting, and require travel to a center outside of the home. Our program goes directly to students to surmount these roadblocks.

As increasing numbers of immigrant families resettle in the region, IHELP provides a pathway to English language skills, social connection, community engagement, and economic mobility. Students feel secure in the environment of one-on-one classes with a trusted teacher and friend.

Adult Program:

Our Adult Program provides foreign-born adults with one-on-one in-home or virtual tutoring. Classes include reading, writing, spoken English, and practical skills for effectively navigating the culture and systems of the United States. Curriculum and additional workshops for participants also include study for the U.S. Citizenship exam, the Driver's Test, and other supplementary needs. The program's overarching goal is to tangibly foster equity and agency for participants through language skills, access to community resources, decreased stress in performing daily tasks, expansion of connections with others in the community, increased job readiness and capability, less reliance on children for family management, and increased involvement in children's education.

Youth Program:

IHELP merged with the English Tutoring Project (ETP) in the summer of 2022 to expand services to immigrant children. Our Youth Program's pilot phase began in 2022 and continues to expand this year. Tutoring sessions are held in the students' homes and are tailored to each student's specific needs. Class times are after school to best fit family schedules, providing targeted ESL support without necessitating children being pulled out of other classes during the school day. Ultimately, the Youth Program seeks to grow the capacity to serve all immigrant children across neighborhoods, school districts, cultures, and variable preexisting ESL resources.
We also hope to positively impact other members of our students' families, including siblings and other youth in the households, through the services of our in-house Social Worker.