KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Hundreds of Knoxville families have spent this year learning and improving their English skills, all at no cost. The nonprofit helping them learn said it needs help to continue providing services.
As a way to celebrate Christmas and student progress, the Center for English and Integration Services hosted a party on Wednesday where students shared food from their cultures.
The Center for English and Integration Services has been helping refugees and immigrants learn and improve their English Skills since 2009. Sandra Fugate, the executive director, said just this year alone the group helped about 550 adults and children.
"We have seven levels of English classes and all internationals are welcome. We have, probably, about 50% of our students are refugees. We serve their children also, we provide childcare and transportation," said Fugate.
She said she expects that number to keep growing. Fugate said the nonprofit partners with Bridge Refugee Services and expects about 100 refugees to come before the middle of January. That's why she said she's encouraging more people to volunteer.
"They just really need to have a desire to teach English and they need to have decent English skills to be able to do that. We've had chemical engineers, attorneys, a wide variety of careers with the background and we do have a teacher training program that we can train teachers when they go in if they don't have any teaching background," said Fugate.
Rene Vergara said he moved to Knoxville from Ecuador to be with his family, and he wanted to go somewhere to help him with his English.
"First, I went to the Centro Hispano, but it was crowded. So they referred me to this place and found this place, I found it great," said Vergara.
Fatima Hasan said the volunteers help in all aspects of their lives. She said she moved to Knoxville from Bangladesh and has been learning with the center for almost a year.
"If you have any problem, we just told them, and I don't know how they solved all of our problems. And I'm cordially thankful for that, that I found this community for coming here," said Hasan.
Fugate said if anyone is interested in learning or improving their English, or teaching people English, they could stop by a class.
"We would love for them to make an appointment and come. The students really like for people to come into their classes and show that they're interested in them," said Fugate.
Anyone interested in volunteering or taking English classes can find more information on the nonprofit's website.