Photograph courtesy Heartfelt Tidbits
While picking up your whole life and moving to another country is difficult enough, the challenges compound when you don’t speak the local language. No matter your level of formal education or impressive work experience, communication issues become barriers for acceptance and success. Luckily, the Cincinnati area has many English as a Second Language (ESL) and adult education programs for all kinds of proficiency levels, age groups, and income levels.
Emily Schuler is the ESL lead and operations coordinator at Heartfelt Tidbits, a local nonprofit dedicated to helping immigrants and refugees. She’s been teaching English there since January 2024 and has seen just how quickly the confidence in her students builds as they gain the tools to better communicate. “Some of my original students are now in positions that they translate at their work,” she says. “A huge thing I’ve been noticing recently is that my original [and current] students who didn’t have very much English skill are now leaders in their communities.”
Photograph courtesy Heartfelt Tidbits
Groups like Heartfelt Tidbits also offer classes and programs on citizenship mentoring, job readiness, and nutrition. Esperanza Latino Center of Northern Kentucky, a nonprofit dedicated to NKY-based Latino families, even offers career mentorship programs through partnerships with area schools and community organizations.
Non-English speakers also have access to free ESL classes both in person and online through Northern Kentucky Adult Education in partnership with Gateway Community & Technical College. The Cincinnati Public Library has similar free ESL offerings through its “New Americans” program.
These accessible and low- to no-cost courses have proved invaluable to local immigrant populations who already face difficult financial, legal, and social barriers when moving here. “The immigrants and refugees in these ESL classes have created communities here,” says Schuler. “They build with the resources we give them and gain the confidence and skills to go into their communities and workplaces and be successful.”
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