Grantee Spotlight: Intercambio Uniting Communities

“We cross lines that usually aren’t – like nationality, race, and socioeconomic status. But what we do isn’t a one-time community-building exercise, and we’re not a charity. By establishing trust over time, we create friendships that develop over years – and that not only benefit immigrants, but that impact the entire community when people connect and communicate with one another.”

“Immigrants thrive when they are able to communicate effectively in English,” reads the Intercambio Uniting Communities website. “Intercambio® offers affordable English classes to adults in convenient locations in their neighborhoods at times that work for working families.”

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Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But Intercambio – a grantee of the Community Foundation, and a recipient of the NOVA award for innovation and excellence in education – does so much more than advance English proficiency.

“We’ve been around 17 years,” says Lee Shainis, Intercambio Executive Director and Co-Founder. “Since then, we’ve trained 5K volunteers and had 10K adult English learners from all over the world participate in our program through our English classes.

“We offer one-on-one classes at immigrants’ homes, and in group settings throughout the county. But our mission is not only to improve the lives of immigrants through English education – it’s also to connect and unite communities across cultures.”

That concept is obviously working: some 500 organizations across the country – schools, faith-based organizations, libraries and literacy coalitions, and immigrant and refugee-serving agencies, for example – rely on the curriculum (currently being updated) and training created by Intercambio. Specifically, the Intercambio model is used in more than 30 states – and counting.

“We sell our curriculum, and offer lots of free training and support so that others also have the opportunity to provide high-quality English classes, and to develop community connections,” continues Lee, who has trained thousands of educators and administrators, nationally, around English acquisition, immigrant integration, and program sustainability. Locally, he has led cultural awareness trainings for 60 organizations – including police departments, educational institutions, and fellow nonprofits.

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“In so doing, we cross lines that usually aren’t – like nationality, race, and socioeconomic status. But what we do isn’t a one-time community-building exercise, and we’re not a charity. By establishing trust over time, we create friendships that develop over years – and that not only benefit immigrants, but that impact the entire community when people connect and communicate with one another.

“None of that happens without a structure, however, and without supports like child care and making classes available at flexible times of day.”

Since its founding in 2001, Intercambio has raised $7M, purchased two buildings, and increased its local staff to 17 people. “We’re growing, especially in Longmont where we’ve become a hub comprising not just Intercambio, but also health resources, business classes, and more,” says Lee. “We’re improving and refining everything we do, and we’re seeing great outcomes – many of our students are earning more money at their jobs, and children have higher graduation rates from high school, for example. We also have great success stories about our volunteers.

“When you put all the pieces together, we’re about community, connection, confidence, and cultural competence. And as more and more people want to be a part of positive solutions, we hope to transform the diversity of communities into a community strength.

“Sometimes you hear people say that our local community isn’t very diverse. But our students and volunteers have a very different perspective.”

Concludes Lee, “We’re super grateful to Community Foundation Boulder County. We wouldn’t be where we are today without them. The foundation is one of our first supporters.”