Impact in 2023

Impact in 2022

Impact in 2021

In 2021, Torus provided 4,106 hours of English classes (3,578 hours of one-on-one classes and 528 hours of group classes) to 230 English language learners. English learners in our program come from many different language backgrounds and a total of 26 different languages were represented. Examples of the languages spoken are Spanish, Russian, Thai, Vietnamese, and Farsi. Torus volunteers have been essential in the success of this program and a total of 229 ESL Facilitators participated in 2021. Volunteers from Oregon and across the United States have been getting involved in this virtual volunteer opportunity and supporting the community here in Oregon.

English level

We use the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) to identify the level of proficiency of an English Language Learner. A1: Beginner, A2: Elementary, B1: Intermediate, B2: Upper Intermediate, C1: Advanced, and C2: Proficient

English levels represented by Torus English Learners:

A1 (35), A2 (43), B1 (53), B2 (40), and C1 (25)

languages represented in 2021

These are the languages represented in our English Class Program: Spanish (57), Thai (22), Russian (19), Vietnamese (15), Farsi (13), Portuguese (11), Arabic (10), Burmese (10), Japanese (7), Korean (7), Karen (5), Kazakh (5), Rohingya (4), Pashto (3), Ukrainian (3), Dari (2), Nepali (2), French (1), Cantonese (1), Kirundi (1), Mandarin (1), Punjabi (1), and Tagalog (1).

Torus Group Classes

From June 2021 to August 2021 Torus has provided English group classes to immigrants and refugees, language learners, and low-income populations. The main topic for each session was Covid-19 and vaccine access. The goal for learners was to do a presentation about Covid-19 at the end of August. The specific topics that we covered during our sessions were about the different variants of Covid-19 (Delta, Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Lambda). In addition to that, we covered general CDC recommended guidelines about self-care, wearing masks, maintaining social distancing, Oregon state mandates regarding Covid-19, and the importance of getting vaccinated as well as vaccine registration and access.

Each learner was required to show up to four classes to receive a stipend. Some learners expressed gratitude and mentioned that the stipend is going to help them with paying rent and groceries.

Outcome:

• 57 Oregon learners were served, 42 of which reached the 4 required attendance count to be eligible to receive the stipends

• Classes were attended 324 times across 57 Oregon learners

• Languages represented in these classes were: Russian, Tagalog, Farsi, Dari, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Ukrainian, Arabic, Rohingya, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese

Vaccination clinics

Torus has collaborated with the Rosewood Initiative to vaccinate people in SE Portland. We provided bilingual volunteers to bridge the cultural and linguistic gaps and help with vaccination efforts. After taking our classes, some learners expressed interest in getting the vaccine, others were interested in volunteering too! We invited learners to volunteer with us and get vaccinated at Rosewood. From May 2021 to October 2021 Torus volunteers have helped the Rosewood Initiative to vaccinate approximately 200 SE Portlanders each Saturday from 12 pm to 5 pm PST.

Language Fair at the festival of nations

On July 25th, 2021, Torus participated at a Festival of Nations in SE Portland. We provided one of our popular signature programs called, “Language Fair”. We shone the light, inspired, and motivated people to learn language like Vietnamese, Russian, Spanish. We engaged with people at the festival with language-based experiential activities to motivate people to learn languages.

Torus language meetups

In 2021, Torus Ambassadors conducted 148 hours of virtual language meetups on meetup.com across 5 languages (Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin, Russian and Vietnamese). We provided these sessions with 6 Vietnamese-speaking volunteers, 4 Spanish-speaking volunteers, 4 Mandarin-speaking volunteers, 4 Russian-speaking volunteers, and 6 Japanese-speaking volunteers.