HRM Consulting Project The St. Mark Community Education Program is an organization that aims to build a vibrant community where immigrants can thrive and enrich their communities by providing English and Citizenship classes, as well as a network of support services. The organization does not currently have a formalized structure to maintain volunteers and onboarding, but has interest in creating a more official system. The project would involve evaluating and analyzing the current volunteer structure and providing recommendations for formalized human resource management, volunteer coordination, and onboarding and training. Prof. Patty Goodman will take us through an "Overview of Sustainable HRM Competencies" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZahS3VKaItY An interview with Mike Oliver, Director of St. Mark Community Education Program. The interview is about one hour long, you might break down your viewing and take notes about the organizational culture, the current process of recruiting volunteers, onboarding volunteers, and developing the volunteers. There is also mention of the organization's needs. Interview with Mike Oliver: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TtxEDKIsLU A Discussion with volunteers for additional insight: https://youtu.be/BYa_CXrpvpU Documents provided by the Director: attached Interview with Members in the Organization Below is the communication from Peg Toro, Volunteer Coordinator on the Citizenship side and an initial analysis completed by Cal Newlon, Volunteer with the ESL teaching side of St. Mark's Community Education. Prof. Patty Goodman takes us through the conversation. Here is the recorded interview https://youtu.be/ZEKTY_UBoEg The following are documents from Cal Newlon:【attached】 1、 SMCEP volunteer listening tour summary 2、 CN volunteer（autosaved Hi Folks, It was great meeting you as well. Cal, you are an example of a volunteer that has come to us through Boston Cares with wonderful skills and experience that you are kind enough to share with SMCEP. We have been able to advance so much in our organization through the expertise and input of many such folks. I have found that working with our fellow volunteers is just as rewarding as working with the students themselves. Attached are a couple of power points that we use in our volunteer trainings and a general statement about the roles of teacher or small group leader. I have more detailed presentations for folks we know will be first time teachers, and lots of other documents specific to the content of the classes, but these are the general materials that everyone sees. In this case, it's important for the students to first understand the naturalization process and why our students are taking the classes. Then we talk about the specifics of the role they are in. For teachers, acting in the position of small group leader is part of the training to become one of the teachers. I really enjoy doing the training but don't like to have to do it for one new person at a time so try to group people whenever possible. Hope this is helpful. Peg 【1、A path to citizenship 2、Teacher-volunteer gudelines 】attached A brief history of St Mark’s SMCEP owes its existence to Father Dan Finn. He fervently believed everyone, regardless of where they came from, should be empowered to participate fully in America society. As pastor of St Mark’s Church, he put this believe into action. The genesis of SMCEP began in 1993 when in response to a growing number of immigrants moving into the St Mark’s parish, a group of parishioners started informal English conversation groups. Several years later, in an effort to increase voter participation in the parish that for many years had the highest vote turnout of any precinct in Boston, the parish undertook an aggressive voter registration drive. The drive successfully registered over 275 residents, but found a number of who were not yet citizens. As a result, in 2001, the parish in partnership with the Irish Immigration Center, (now Rian Immigrant Center) launched a citizenship campaign. A number of workshops were held on the naturalization process. Volunteers were trained to assist people in the application process and prepare applicants for interviews through a mix of civics classes, English classes and one to one tutoring. All this effort culminated in the St Mark’s Area ESOL program that except for a coordinator was run entirely by a group of 17 volunteers. The program offered two ESOL classes, English for Citizenship class and one to one tutoring, as well as continued citizenship workshop. In 2003, the program received 10,000 dollars from English for New Bostonians which enable the parish to begin the process of developing a formal English program with paid staff. I haven’t been able to find any information on what happened to the volunteers, but by the time I arrived in 2013, except for the board and a couple of conversation leaders, there were none. In 2005, SMCEP was born when the parish spun out the program to become its own 501c3. Over the last 15 plus years, the program has offered 4 levels of English classes. The number of students served has ranged between 100- 150, increasing to 200 when there was extra money available to have additional classes. Earlier student populations were more diverse than now, a reflection of the ever changing demographics of the neighborhood. Most lived in the area. Currently, Vietnamese continues to be the major ethnic group in the ESOL classes; the citizenship classes are more diverse but have a high concentration of Spanish speakers. Over the last 20 years, we have continued to offer our two signature programs, ESOL and citizenship in some form or another. Having volunteers has enabled us to maintain and grow the program. In many ways our current program reflects the 2000-2003 period, particularly our current citizenship program and the new addition Pathways to Citizenship. Adding job counseling and or placement for those looking for a job as well as career readiness workshops would benefit many of our students. Currently we don’t have the capacity to offer this service in a sustained way. To do so, we would need additional funds to hire at least a part time person. Such a person could also assist students with other issues, especially those that jeopardize a student’s maintaining enrollment in the classes. Cost is between 25 and 30 thousand dollars. Board of Directors Suezanne Bruce Social Media Volunteer training Community Boston Cares Northeastern Brookline High Other BC Program orientation with Mike • • • History of organization class format volunteer role ESOL classes Orientation with instructor • • • • class goals student population format of class general tutor training Ongoing support Pngpomng support Citizenship classes Orientation on the Naturalization process Three specialized trainings • • • Zoom Host/Cohost Presenters Small group facilitators Listening tour overview: we talked to 4 volunteers for 20-30 minutes each 2 students 2 young professionals Questions covered the overall experience: • Why did you get involved with tutoring English? Grace BC student, PULSE program Bridget Immigration paralegal, Fragomen • Why did you choose the St. Mark’s site? • What was the sign-up process like? • What has been most rewarding about tutoring? Francesco Northeastern student Kyra Development officer, Ma. General Hospital • What have you found challenging? • Do you have any suggestions on improving the overall tutoring experience? BOS Listening tour summary 1 There were several recurring themes we heard in the listening tour 1 Overall experience 2 Getting started 3 4 Class experience Suggestions • Strengths: Volunteers think that the class time is well-structured and that the activities are engaging for the students; the BookWidgets platform is effective and easy to use • Shadowing: Volunteers could start “Week Zero” by auditing other volunteers break-out rooms to understand the class and experience different tutor styles • Challenges: Volunteers primary difficulties are tied to the virtual learning experience (e.g., getting students off mute, matching Zoom names to preferred first names, navigating break-out rooms) • Resources: Volunteers would benefit from an internal peer network, where they could ask each other questions, share tips, and build a sense of community Volunteer commentary Volunteer commentary Volunteer commentary “It felt like I was thrown into the deep end a little bit… I wasn’t exactly sure what I was doing when I joined. You hit your sweet spot after a few weeks though, once you get the hang of it and start to recognize the students” “Since I’ve been here, I’ve come to know the students on a first name basis. I can tell who responds best to certain questions, and who has the textbook and who doesn’t. Break-out groups are so intuitive now – I like that you can see the instructions right on the screen” “I know what I’m doing now, but I am curious to know how the other volunteers lead their breakout groups. It would be nice to have more of a network – I don’t know the other volunteers well, but I would like to” • Overall: Volunteers reported a great, rewarding experience and desire to continue tutoring, even if/when the program returns to inperson learning (despite transportation challenges) • Recruiting: Volunteers first hear about tutoring from a variety of sources – students are referred by their on-campus programs, and young professionals from colleagues and peers • Mission: Volunteers believe in the goals and ambition of the program, and feel rewarded by the personal student outcomes, the impact they have, and the sense of community • Onboarding: Volunteers encountered some challenges with getting started, citing limited instruction available before their first class, but caught up to speed within a few weeks Volunteer commentary “This feels like the best two hours of the week. I would never have the chance to interact with this community otherwise, and it’s an inspiration to me to see the impact I have on students as they improve week to week.” BOS Listening tour summary 2 We have a few recommendations for quick wins & longer-term ideas that could improve the class experience for both volunteers and students Getting started Network and resources Class time Student outcomes • Week Zero for new recruits to observe experienced volunteers by shadowing breakout rooms • Volunteer network for interested volunteers (i.e. WhatsApp chat, Google group, etc.) • Build connections with students by asking for introductions and including first names in typed responses • Volunteer profiles for interested future tutors to learn more about who gets involved, and what the experience is like (on the website, in a LinkedIn post, etc.) • Google drive of resources helpful to reference: • Design breakout groups intentionally (vs. random assignment) to match student levels, volunteer experience • Quick survey to share any feedback on students / gauge level, ideally could be completed in
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