Worcester Business Journal

32 Worcester Business Journal | September 5, 2022 | wbjournal.com K aska Yawo has always wanted a centralized hub for African Community Education, the nonprofit he founded in Worcester with Olga Valdman in 2006. Finally, aer about 16 years and thousands of people served, the nonprofit founded to help African immigrants is finally going to have what he's always dreamt of. ACE purchased the 51 Gage St. building – a former charter school – earlier this year for $1.8 million, the nonprofit said in January. e property was purchased in cash, thanks to a gi from a private donor Yawo said discovered ACE and wanted to help out. e donor ended up giving a total of $2.8 million to the organization, the biggest single gi in ACE's history and more than its total fiscal year 2021 revenue of $1.6 million. e purchase will allow ACE to expand its services beyond Worcester and the surrounding area, increase its legal and translation services, start offering its educational programs for kids as young as third grade, and add new services, including driver education and child care. It will be a place where immigrants and refugees can come for services, or for anyone to get involved with the organization as a volunteer, Yawo said. ACE needs to hire building and maintenance staff for the facility, he said, and the nonprofit is seeking donations in order to renovate the building. "When I founded this organization, we were going from place to place. We haven't had a permanent space. e public schools have been great to us; but sometimes we want to stay to provide services, but the building is closed," Yawo said. "It's been our goal to have our own place, where we will serve the community and where we will call our home." How was ACE started? Yawo is a native of Liberia who lived in refugee camps in three different countries for nine years. He came over with a college degree, but even with all of his accolades, transitioning to the U.S. was quite difficult. "e system over here is very different, be it culture, be it food, be it community-based gatherings. It all was different," he said. While working at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in Boston, Yawo noticed refugee children who came into the commonwealth were having trouble keeping up with their peers. e dropout rate for students from African was high, he said. "Take, for example, a child born in a refugee camp, who grew up there for 14 or 15 years. en put them in the 10th grade, according to their age, or even ninth grade, but the child never had a book, and now has to do algebra and trigonometry. How in the world will that child survive?" Yawo said. "I said, 'You know what, I will have to put this program together to do an intensive for aer school and Saturday school, so that people will be able to help children catch up with their peers.'" Since its official founding in 2006, ACE has assisted thousands of African families throughout Worcester, and about 300 students have graduated from its program, Yawo said. e nonprofit offers immigration services, an English as a second language program for families, a mentoring program to help kids build self-esteem, and post-secondary education help, where students get guidance on things like applying to college and financial aid. ACE offers a workforce development program, which offers kids and adults assistance with applying for new jobs and the opportunity to do outside internships where ACE pays their salaries. Its Saturday program, which is offered concurrent to the school year, features teaching in science, engineering, technology, and math, plus literacy and traditional activities like African dance and drumming. An outreach program will contact students and their families if a child is struggling in school, and a summer reading program that can be translated to school credit. To raise money for renovations and an expansion with its new building purchase, ACE will soon launch a capital campaign, with the goal of raising $5 million. ose funds will last the organization a few years, Yawo said. David Jordan, president of the Worcester nonprofit Seven Hills Foundation, said he admires how Yawo and Valdman stepped up and addressed a problem. "ey began this on a shoestring and decided to do something for the benefit of many African immigrants coming to the Worcester community," Jordan said. "ey had the right intention, and they always had the right approach to the work in terms of being selfless givers to people in need." A place to help African immigrants With the purchase of its first permanent headquarters and the largest donation in its history, the nonprofit African Community Education is expanding its focus BY LAURA FINALDI Special to WBJ ACE programming includes an after-school program for one-on-one tutoring and experiential learning for students, as well as a family education program, which provides English as a second language training for parents of students. PHOTO/AFRICAN COMMUNITY EDUCATION F O C U S D I V E R S I T Y & I N C L U S I O N Kaska Yawo, co-founder of African Community Education David Jordan, president of Seven Hills Foundation

• Cover