W83 Newsletter Feature January 2019

"No Strangers Here"
Open Door NJNY

"No one who enters our door leaves a stranger."
-Open Door student

Two evenings a week, W83 opens its doors to students who come from deep in Brooklyn, the far reaches of the Bronx, and right here on the Upper West Side. Three brothers take the train together together from East New York after working construction all day. Some students still have an hour to travel to get home after classes end at nine.  
 
But they come every week, because they want to learn English. And through The Open Door NJNY’s programs, they can do that at W83, for free.
 
The program was founded in New Jersey to help recent immigrants gain crucial language skills. And The Open Door began to offer classes for the first time in New York City through a partnership with the congregation at Redeemer West Side, at W83.

The program's home at W83 is key for students, says Liza Cho, Open Door's program director. "It makes students feel like they're walking into a special place," she says. "They’re the VIPs. It’s the equivalent of a very nice academy or workshop you would have to pay hundreds of dollars for in any other organization.”

But most important, she says, is the welcome that students feel at W83. “This is a space they feel comfortable and safe,” Cho says. “And feel a sense of community.”
 

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