IRIS Family Literacy Program (formerly IRIS Mother and Child ESOL Program)

Program Overview

IRIS's Family Literacy Program is uniquely designed to meet the needs of refugee mothers with young children, who have limited options for learning English. Five mornings a week, refugee mothers bring their young children to an adjacent preschool readiness class and then attend English class. The multi-level class—taught by an experienced teacher and volunteers—focuses on extremely practical applications of reading, writing, and speaking English in order to improve the women's integration and help them manage their family's daily tasks, support their children's education, and engage in community life. The program also offers parent education classes and parent-child interactive literacy activities.

Wellness activity classes such as yoga and exercise are also offered after English classes.

Please visit our Family Literacy website here: https://sites.google.com/irisct.org/iris/family-li...

Cost Info

Student and Volunteer Success Stories

Mehr Taj started attending IRIS Mother & Child English classes in January of 2017 and completed the session in June of 2017 with 38 hours of English instruction in the program.

Mehr Taj is a mother from Afghanistan who arrived in the USA in 2016 with her husband and four children. Her youngest, Ayesha, born in late 2014, came with her to the classes. Ayesha, a pleasant little girl with big brown eyes and a thick brown bob, never said anything to the volunteers, but listened intently as they spoke to her while playing dolls or squishing Playdoh into shapes together. One volunteer, Brenda, would tickle Ayesha's feet as she sat on the rug to which Ayesha would respond by giggling, moving her feet away, then slyly moving them back for more. She finally and appropriately said the first word we heard on the last day. At the urging of her mom, Aysha said "bye bye." The volunteers nearly cried.

Mehr Taj first came to class knowing a few phrases in English. Hello, my name is…, how are you… to name a few, but she did not have much of a grasp on the English alphabet and had to be shown how to grip a pencil correctly in order to form the letters better. She was shy at first, but was very motivated and she participated and practiced diligently in class. Phonics lessons allowed her to begin reading and by the end of the course, she was able to read consonant-vowel-consonant words with accuracy and she was sounding out other words with some accuracy. She also gained confidence in being able to navigate the community. Her husband dropped her off to the first class and after that she was able to get to class alone or together with other mothers. During the course she learned practical skills like how to read a food store advertisement and plan a shopping list, how to express that she or her child is ill and when to go to the doctor, and how to respond to a text message. Mehr Taj also made friendships with other women in the class. Overall, Mehr Taj's progress is dramatic given that she was pre-literate when she started, but there is much more improvement to be made as she is still at the beginning literacy level. Mehr Taj can definitely benefit from more Mother & Child English classes, which provide a learning environment for her daughter as well. Without being able to bring her daughter with her, Mehr Taj would not have attended English classes.