KeyBank recently launched a two-year $100,000 community impact grant made through KeyBank Foundation to Make the Road New York, the largest participatory immigrant organization in New York. The grant will help sustain the organization’s Westchester Adult Education Project, which educates low-income immigrant adults in Westchester with English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and civics classes. With KeyBank’s funding, the program will be able to serve at least 40 ESOL students each year, helping them improve their communication skills to better integrate into the community and live more economically stable and healthier lives.
Students served by the Westchester Adult Education Project are from Mexico, Guatemala and across Central and South America, many working in low-wage jobs with lack of access to health care and experiencing housing instability. ESOL classes support students to learn English so they can advocate for their rights at work, interact with health-care providers, help their children with schooling and more. Civics classes support eligible students to prepare for their citizenship exams. KeyBank’s funds will be used for program implementation, including personnel.
Make The Road New York annually serves 30,000 immigrants from across the Hudson Valley, Long Island and New York City. Its centers are neighborhood hubs providing educational programs, as well as wraparound services such as immigration legal services, computer and financial literacy, employment training and job placement, health insurance and benefits enrollment and more.
KeyBank’s grant to Make The Road New York is part of the bank’s $40 billion community investments plan focused on economic access and equity to communities across the country.
Make the Road New York builds the power of immigrant and working-class communities to achieve dignity and justice. It’s accomplished through four key strategies: community organizing, policy innovation, transformative education and the provision of legal and survival services.
