For the fourth year in a row, Health New England has awarded ILI a grant in support of our free English classes for immigrants and refugees! And as in 2020, this year’s grant is tied to Health New England’s COVID-19 mini-grant program.
Part of the curricula for ILI’s free English classes includes topics such as the importance of nutrition, exercise, and other aspects of healthy living. Past Health New England financial support has covered a portion of the costs to develop and update health-related lesson plans.
Since the advent of the COVID pandemic last year, inequities in U.S. healthcare systems have been laid bare as evidenced by outsized infection and death rates and job losses in Black, Asian-American, Indigenous, LatinX, immigrant, and refugee populations and low-income families across the country. Well into the second year of the pandemic, many immigrants and refugees in ILI’s free English classes are experiencing heightened anxiety and uncertainty about the future. The 2020 and 2021 Health New England grants will go a long way as ILI reconfigures lesson plans through additions related to mental fitness, with emphasis on how to alleviate stress through meditation and other means and how to seek help as needed with COVID-specific issues.
Thank you, Health New England!
