Adrienne Eisenmenger and Eh Tha Blay Lway at the Kentucky Refugee Ministries New Beginnings Drumming Workshop. Photo: Kentucky Refugee Ministries
On a snowy Saturday afternoon in December, excitement and music filled the air at a neighborhood community center in Louisville, Kentucky. Twenty-three refugee youth from across the city gathered, with their tutor/mentors, to create their own drums, explore the relationship between rhythm and beat, and make music together as one around an international drumming circle.
All of the youth are student participants in the Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM) New Beginnings Tutoring/Mentoring Program. The program serves newly arrived refugee students, ages five to eighteen, who are facing the many challenges of starting school in a new country and adjusting to a new life and culture.
Many have arrived in the United States with gaps in their education or no previous formal schooling. Parents often feel disconnected from their child’s education because of a lack of English skills or knowledge of the school system. Language barriers, cultural differences and miscommunication can often frustrate teachers, students and their families.
Through the New Beginnings program, at-risk students are identified by teachers, parents, and KRM staff, and trained volunteer tutor/mentors are matched with students. Tutor/mentors meet with students and their families once a week in the family’s home throughout the academic year to assist with language learning, offer homework help, support cultural adjustment to life in the United States and a new school, and encourage and empower parents to be more involved in their student’s education.
KRM Youth Services workers connect parents and tutor/mentors with each student’s teachers so that increased communication between home and school can be forged. These volunteers build strong relationships with the families, and everyone looks forward to their sessions together each week.
Field trips, such as the drumming workshop, are another important part of the New Beginnings program, giving students and their tutor/mentors a chance to build relationships with each other and other participants in the program while also discovering more about themselves, their community, and the world around them.
Field trips are offered at no charge to students and their families. During the December workshop, tutor/mentors assisted students in creating drums and then students used their new creations in a drumming circle led by a local music therapist who challenged them to find themselves in the music.
Looking for signs of life. Refugee students and their tutors on a pond life search. Photo: Linda Golden/Kentucky Refugee Ministries
Other recent field trips include a community-wide hike at a local forest in Louisville. Students investigated the natural world with their tutor/mentors through nature walks and animal encounters, and even discovered more about local government through a personal meeting with the city mayor, learning firsthand about his leadership role in the city.
Through these activities and consistent, one-on-one time with volunteers, students receive greater emotional and educational support, and they, along with their families are welcomed and encouraged to become more engaged in their new community.
Adrienne Eisenmenger is Youth Services Coordinator, Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Louisville.