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The Immigrant Learning Center Awarded $50,000 Grant from Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation
MALDEN, Mass, July 7, 2021/ Malden’s The Immigrant Learning Center (The ILC) has received a $50,000 grant from the Malden-based Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation. This grant will help fund The Immigrant Learning Center’s English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) programs. Since opening its doors in 1992, The Immigrant Learning Center has offered free ESOL classes to 11,000 adult students. The ILC now offers ESOL and citizenship classes to more than 900 students in a typical year.
This grant is particularly helpful to The Immigrant Learning Center in the wake of a very challenging year. During the COVID-19 pandemic, The Immigrant Learning Center had to pivot almost overnight to virtual classes. The pandemic also forced The ILC to cancel The Immigrant Learning Center’s Barry M. Portnoy Immigrant Entrepreneur Awards and the annual Golf Classic fundraisers. This grant will help recoup the lost funds and ensure that The ILC can continue its mission of giving immigrants a voice. “We’re so grateful for The Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation, which has supported our immigrant and refugee students for more than 20 years,” says The ILC’s Director of Development Mark Correia.
The Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation has two policies guiding their grant-giving: “To support organizations, the activities of which are centered in Malden, Massachusetts and surrounding communities. To support organizations elsewhere, the activities of which give substantial benefits to Malden, Massachusetts and surrounding communities.” While The Immigrant Learning Center’s students come from far and wide, the center has deep roots in Malden. The ILC’s Founder and CEO Diane Portnoy’s family immigrated to Malden when she was a toddler and she returned as an adult to create the free adult education program that she wished her parents had when they were newcomers. The majority of The ILC’s students live in Malden, a place where more than 40 percent of residents belong to the city’s rich, diverse community of immigrants. In offering this grant, the Adelaide Breed Bayrd Foundation is honoring and supporting Malden’s newcomer neighbors.
About The Immigrant Learning Center, Inc.
