Our awesome project is the Community Language Class (CLC), which is under our larger initiative called The Education Project (TEP). The Education Project was created to address education inequality issues within communities of color as well as provide and create resources for adult and elderly learners. TEP holds monthly public meetings at Chicago’s Chinatown library to discuss education issues with community members and build solutions to address them. Other than the CLC, there are also 2 other project teams working within our target communities: Fourth Industrial Revolution in Education (FIRE) and Building Engaged Parents (BEP).

We created this Community Language Class to bridge the language barrier between community members and their neighbors, and between the children of Chinese immigrants and their family. Not only will students learn Cantonese or English; they will also learn how to tell stories about themselves and others in this language so that they can strengthen and connect their own communities.

This class will be an immersive 6-week community language "bootcamp" for 20-30 community members in the neighborhoods of Bridgeport, Chinatown, McKinley Park, Armour Square, Pilsen, Douglas, and Bronzeville.

The class consists of 4 elements: 1) an English class, 2) a Cantonese class, 3) weekly phone calls for students to practice the language, and 4) weekly field trips in which students from the Cantonese class practice their language with students from the English class, as well as engage in fun activities around the Chinatown community such as scavenger hunts!

This class will happen this summer during June 22nd-August 1st. We plan to hold the class in the Chinatown library, but are preparing for it to be an online class in case the pandemic worsens.