Organization Spotlight: Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative

September 9, 2019

For this month's spotlight, I reached out to Georgia Portocarrero and Winanne Kreger (bio below) to share with us about the Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative's (GBCI) English Conversation Group.

Can you describe your ESOL program and how your organization came to be?

The GBCI English Conversation Group was started in 2012 by a group of Asbury Methodist Village (a retirement community in Gaithersburg) residents and two members of the Gaithersburg community, under the aegis of the Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative. This is one of a number of programs GBCI has developed to foster collaboration and communication between Asbury residents and members of the surrounding community.

Volunteers from AMV and neighboring areas meet weekly for an hour with second language learners who come from Gaithersburg and Germantown to improve their English conversation skills. When the group started there were five participants, who spoke very little English. As the group grew, it was split into two levels, one for beginners and the other for intermediate students.

What are the demographics of learners?

The majority of our participants are women from Central and South America, although we have had learners from Asian countries and for several years the husband of one of our participants was part of the group. Many of the women have babies and pre-school children who play in a nearby space while their mothers practice English.

For readers who may not be familiar with GBCI and your ESOL program, what are some things you would like them to know about your program?

Currently, the GBCI English Conversation Group meets for eleven sessions in the Fall (September-December) and eleven sessions in the Spring (March-June). Participants are given a certificate if they attend at least eight of the eleven sessions.
During each semester, we discuss topics that are generated by the participants and the volunteers. We also invite speakers from the community to provide information about issues and resources of interest to the group. We have had speakers talk about immigration, gangs, nutrition and food banks, women’s health issues and public library programs, among other topics.
In addition to providing an opportunity for learning English and gaining information about community resources, this class functions as a place for participants to network and support one another.

Can you share a recent success story?

Milagro Rivera Flores, one of the founders of and first participants in the group, was very shy and spoke little English when she partnered with the AMV volunteers to organize the group and become the liaison between GBCI and the Gaithersburg community. Over time her English improved, she developed confidence in her ability to network in the community and started organizing workshops and events for her fellow immigrants. She also started Mujer Fuerza y Coraje (Powerful and Courageous Women), a group dedicated to mutual support and empowerment of women. In 2017 she received the MCPS Board of Education Distinguished Service in Public Education Award. In addition, she has recently received an award as one of the 100 top female leaders in the DC Metropolitan Hispanic community.

Georgia Portocarrero taught at bilingual schools in Mexico and worked as an ESOL teacher for MCPS. After retiring, she taught Workplace English for MCPS. She has been co-leader of the GBCI English Conversation Group since 2015.

Winanne Kreger worked as an internal organization development consultant and mediator for an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where she worked with individuals and work teams across the United States and in countries around the world until her retirement in 2010.
Winanne has enjoyed working with this group since 2013. This is her first experience working with English as a Second Language learners.

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