By Ethan Miller ‘23
Imagine moving across the world to a new country. A new language, a new culture, a new home (or lack thereof); the sheer newness would be chaotic. It sounds impossible, yet many families within Conestoga Valley School District are dealing with exactly that reality. And while the students of those families receive ESL classes and resources at school, their parents often are left without the necessary resources to grow and become comfortable at the same rate as their children. CV SEEDS seeks to change that.
CV SEEDS works to help strengthen the Conestoga Valley community through a variety of areas and programs. They currently offer adult ESL classes for two semesters a year, and they are seeking to offer housing and health resources soon.
“We want to work smarter, not harder,” SEEDS says on their website, “building bridges and strong partnerships between SEEDS, the Conestoga Valley School District, the CV community, and other non-profit organizations who are already doing great work, all while bettering our community and the lives of all individuals who live in it.”
SEEDS started as an idea multiple years ago. I talked with Michelle Kime, the president of SEEDS, and Kristen Hershey, vice president (and the wife of our own Mr. Hershey here at CVHS)
“Katie Reiff, school social worker, is really the person that kind of got it started; she was just seeing needs continue to grow in the district,” Hershey explained. “And she was seeing that needs were specifically growing in the areas of health, education and housing. And so that’s kind of what formed SEEDS for us. And about five years ago, we started visiting all of the other local hubs in the county.”
Local hubs are organizations within towns and districts in the area that serve the needs of community members. CrossNet, for example, serves the New Holland and Garden Spot communities. The Factory serves the Pequea Valley School District.
After 2 years of planning, visiting, and researching how they could create similar programs within CVSD, the initial group prepared to launch SEEDS. COVID-19 had other plans, and the start of the program was delayed by over a year. In fall 2021, plans were restarted and in fall 2022, the organization launched their first program – while also becoming a 501c3 nonprofit.
SEEDS has three main focuses within the CV community: health, education, and housing. Housing is a challenge for anyone moving to a new region, let alone an entirely new country. SEEDS works with local established organizations to bring community members that they serve housing opportunities.
“As far as the housing component, that’s a little bit trickier to navigate,” Hershey said. “But we’ve started to attend some township board of supervisor meetings just to make sure that our townships are talking about affordable housing, and partnering with organizations like Tenfold [a local group that works to provide housing and shelter within Lancaster county], like who are already doing it.”
As they get their programs for housing and health off the ground, SEEDS has focused heavily on the education component of their outreach. Starting last fall with their first semester, the group meets at Faith Church for adult ESL classes twice a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Childcare is provided, which allows for more families to come.
“English is taught as a second language to students who come here who maybe don’t have English as their primary language, but adults don’t have the same access,” Kime explained. “And so we wanted to help with that; one of our main hearts and goals is to get rid of barriers that people have in their life that is not allowing them to be the thriving healthy people that they want to be. One of the barriers is the English language and that ability to speak it to a level that they are competent in, so that was one of our first programs that we have started, where we’re partnering with the Literacy Center, and they provide us the materials and then everything else with it is just staffed by volunteers. It’s been great; volunteers bring a meal, they help with childcare, they do all the teaching. So that’s been a really great thing to see the community come together.”
Each meeting begins with a meal available to all families and volunteers, followed by a class session run by volunteers. There are three levels of classes: intro, level 1, and advanced. Some families are completely new to English, while others are more versed in speaking the language. I visited and observed each class— each one was warm, welcoming, and fun to take part of. The advanced class often works on skills unique or different to the American culture, such as the process and customs of returning items. The students are engaged, and have quickly become friends with each other during this school year’s 2 semesters of learning.
“For me, the class is fun,” said Amira, a student and parent of students in the district. “And learning. Like, we’re talking, we’re sharing a lot about our day, some experience.”
“We are like a family,” added Inara with a smile.
After just one year, SEEDS and their programs are making an impact. In the future, they are looking for more volunteers to help run the classes and support the program. And, of course, to strengthen the CV community.
“Our mission is to cultivate a healthy thriving CV community,” Hershey said. “So however we can partner and work smarter, not harder with organizations already doing great things. We just want to make CV better.”
We don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” Kime added. “There’s resources out there. We just need to make them more accessible to those in Conestoga Valley community. And so yeah, if you work in a doctor’s office, if you work in a dentist, if you work, if you are a landlord, any of those things and you have a similar heart, we’d love to connect with you. Making those connections to build partnerships is what we are all about.”
More information about SEEDS, including how to get involved, can be found at their website linked below.