Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America

https://www.refugeefora.org

Led by a child developmental psychologist who specializes in academic reform, FORA provides the educational scaffolding needed for these children to succeed at school and in life. In our first year, 2019, we worked with 30 students with a two-to-one student-teacher ratio, and we had amazing, statistically significant, results. As of 2023, we work with 75 students with a two-to-one student ratio! At FORA, we provide daily after-school tutoring to help refugee children catch up to grade level so that school becomes meaningful. We provide more than 40,000 of yearly individualized tutoring to more than 80 refugee children, and the results are fantastic. The key to our success is High Impact Tutoring, a one-on-one program with individualized learning plans and hundreds of trained volunteer tutors. Due to our individualized lessons, caring staff members, and dedicated tutors, FORA students' reading skills grew 3.4 times more than what would be expected in an average year. Our students' math skills grew 2.64 times more than would be expected in an average year. Currently, Suellen de Barros, a PHD candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is the head of our High Impact Tutoring Program. At FORA, we continue to have positive results regarding our students' academic progress. More importantly, we treated these students as individuals, as well as with patience and respect. It is important to show our kids how much we value them and the amount of confidence we have in their capabilities. Without immigrants, there would be no America.