The Tennessean (read story):

Nashville May Get New Wave of Refugees, Janell Ross

"Today, Nashville's schools have the capacity to serve students in 131 languages and provide English as a Second Language courses for adults. Metro's Social Services Department and grants from the Tennessee Department of Health and Human Services to agencies such as the Sudanese Community and Women's Services Center [TFLI's partner organizaton], the Somali Community Center and Kurdish Human Rights Watch have also created a limited network of services for refugees."

Lowering the Language Barrier, Blake Farmer

The number of Latinos fatally-injured on the job has been climbing for years, due in part to language barriers with their English-speaking supervisors. One company chose TFLI in Nashville to try to bridge the gap.

Contractors Tackle Language Barrier, Blake Farmer

 At a job-site on Briley Parkway, Rogers Group hired TFLI to perform a specially designed curriculum with the workers, who receive their hourly wage for taking the class. 

ESL Community:

Community Foundation

Community ESL, March-June 2001
The Community ESL grant, sponsored by the Community Foundation of Nashville, was designed to target a group of Latinos in Nashville who wished to better integrate into their workplaces, schools and immediate communities and who would have a better chance for advancement in their companies if they improved their English skills. Due to the need of ESL in the hospitality industry in Nashville, we chose the downtown area for our pilot program. The purpose of the grant was to provide an intensive English language course that focused on all areas of language acquisition including speaking, reading, writing and listening.

Project Access

Project Access is a collaborative two-year program between the Frist Center and Nashville Public Library with funding from a National Leadership Grant (2003) for Library-Museum Collaboration by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Washington, D.C. These grants support innovative projects that model how museums and libraries can work together to expand their services to the public, with an emphasis on serving the community, using technology, or enhancing education. Project Access is designed to help increase adult English language learners’ skill in language, arts and computer literacy. Two hundred participants in the two-year program will engage in art-making, computer-based learning, museum and library visits through the Tennessee Foreign language Institute, Metropolitan Nashville Public School Adult Education Programs, which include the Refugee English Program and immigrant English classes, United Way Family Resource Centers, and the Salvation Army. Little Planet Learning, a Nashville technology company, has designed Project Access’s website with arts and Nashville native Red Grooms as host of the site. The website allows the program to have a wider impact in the community and nationally. A feature of this website will allow visitors to access their artwork created in ArtQuest that is stored on ArtQuest’s digital portfolio.

For more information about Project Access, visit the Project Access website at www.projectaccess.org.

Dollar General Literacy Foundation  

Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity

Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity adds a formal English Language Learners’ (ELL) Program to the agency’s HomeWORKS curriculum. The Program will be developed in partnership with the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (TFLI). The ELL offerings will consist of two consecutive, three-tiered, skill-based courses that will meet weekly for two hours over 10 consecutive weeks – a total of 20 hours instruction time dedicated to each course. Offered courses will include Beginning English, Intermediate English, and English Literacy. 

The Somali Community Center of Nashville

The Somali Community Center of Nashville partnered with TFLI to continue Literacy classes and ESL classes and to implement a Citizenship class for refugees who are not currently being served under existing language programs. The refugees to be served under the proposal are those who have been in the USA for five (5) years or longer. Those in the U.S. over five years include many who are preparing for their Citizenship Examination. This proposed program intends to integrate the refugees into the English-speaking community so that they may enhance their social and economic skills both formally and informally.

The Sudanese Community and Women's Services Center

The SCWSC and TFLI have been partners since 2006. With the help of an earlier grant from NCAC, the dedication of volunteers, ESL instructors and TESL practice teachers, TFLI has been able to teach at the center four nights per week. The Sudanese refugees are learning to read, write and communicate in English. They have been able to get jobs and help their children adjust to school life, and many of them have received driver’s licenses and passed citizenship classes as a result. To continue these classes TFLI needs financial support. Many generous Nashvillians have made contributions, and we thank them. If you would like to help sustain the ESL classes at the SCWSC, please follow this link: http://www.ssreg.com/tfli/classes/classes.asp?catID=1301&pcatID=334

Listen to the podcast interview from SCWSC’s Executive Director, Gatluak Ter Thach, on Liberadio (!):http://www.liberadio.com/2007/12/10/liberadio-podcast-12-december-2007-good-night-and-gatluak/

Nashville Career Advancement Center & Metro Government Refugee Services

June 2006 - June 2007

The Somali Community Center of Nashville (SCCN) is partnered in this Contract Proposal with the Sudanese Community Association (SCAT) and the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute (TFLI) to meet the Social Adjustment and English Language Training needs and challenges that face eligible refugees in Nashville, Tennessee/Davidson County. Direct resettlement of refugees, family reunifications and secondary migrations from other states continue to make Nashville a leading national city for immigration. Refugees settling in the U.S. and locally over the past five years have mainly arrived from Africa, with majorities of them from Somalia and Sudan, plus others arriving from Ethiopia, Central African nations and Liberia. SCCN and SCAT developed strong, versatile social service programs to meet the growing demands for social adjustment presented by these and other refugees in Nashville. TFLI has a historic and accomplished resume as the city’s leading provider of adult language training, and is well-positioned to deliver English as Second Language classes to the eligible refugees this proposed program will serve. Classes were delivered in appropriate locations to maximize access by refugees.