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August 9, 2024By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
WORCESTER – A parish can reach out to the community by sharing its space.
Just ask Msgr. Robert K. Johnson, pastor of St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish, and those who benefit from that sharing.
The parish is giving rooms in the former St. Stephen School building at 355 Grafton St., free of charge, to people who are reaching out to others in need.
One is Alice Sallese, an active member of the parish’s Brazilian community with a new endeavor of her own. She said she is founder and CEO of The Bridge Brazilian American Center Inc., a non-profit she’s preparing to open. When it opens, it is to help immigrants from any country – and Americans – with a variety of needs.
Also using free space in the old school to serve immigrants is The Summer Polar Bear Club from North High School, which offers academic help to new arrivals in public schools. It is not officially affiliated with any school or church, said Barbara Petrocelli, one of the club’s head volunteers, herself a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester.
She had called Msgr. Johnson, seeking a place for the club to operate this summer, since the space at North High wasn’t available then.
“This is a wonderful program,” Msgr. Johnson told The Catholic Free Press. He had space for it because religious education classes, which use the old St. Stephen’s school building, are not held in the summer. He called this a perfect opportunity for outreach to the wider community.
“We are extremely grateful to have a place to do this,” and St. Stephen’s is ideal because many of the students live nearby and walk there, Ms. Petrocelli said.
She said the summer program, held there from 10 a.m. to noon Monday-Friday, started after school ended in June and is to continue until school starts again.
About 25 volunteers - including professional teachers, medical students, and community members - provide instruction in English and math to immigrants and refugees from Worcester public schools. There are 19 students from age 3 through high school, she said.
(Some younger children come with their school-aged siblings for educational games and other activities.) On any one day, 15 students come, and at least five volunteers are needed to teach small groups.
To explain how the club started, Ms. Petrocelli went back to 2021, when she began working with Afghans who came to Worcester after the United States military left Afghanistan.
She joined a volunteer team to help an Afghan family and met Maya Desai, another volunteer, and some other people who now work with The Polar Bear Club. As they helped their Afghan family, they met other families and started helping them too.
In 2022 Blessed Sacrament Parish lent them space, free of charge, for English as a Second Language classes for the adults, Ms. Petrocelli said. She called the priest she met there – Father Richard F. Trainor – “delightful,” and said, “he was there to welcome us.”
She commended Blessed Sacrament and St. Joseph and St. Stephen parishes for living out the sayings, “when you pray, move your feet” and “be the hands of Christ.”
She said that last winter Ms. Desai realized many of the students they knew in North High needed academic help. So, she started The Polar Bear Club, named for North High’s mascot, with Ms. Petrocelli’s help. It was an after-school drop-in opportunity for any students there to get whatever help they needed. Mostly immigrants and refugees came.
“We were filling in that gap,” to help students succeed in high school while still learning English, Ms. Petrocelli said.
Francis “Frank” Murphy, who teaches English as a Second Language at North High, said he welcomed them to use his classroom, shared resources, helped teach, checked with other teachers to discover students’ needs, and became liaison between the club and the principal.
The Worcester Public Schools and some individuals donated iPads for students to use to practice English and math at home, Ms. Petrocelli said.
“All along this whole journey, little miracles happened,” she said. A volunteer’s wife connected The Polar Bear Club with students from the UMass Chan Medical School whovolunteered to teach at the club.
When the club was doing well last winter Ms. Desai said, “Let’s keep it going this summer.”
So, Ms. Petrocelli said, “I started calling around, mostly to churches in this area,” seeking a place for the summer school. “When I called this church, happily the monsignor said ... ‘Oh, sure. Which rooms do you want?’” (They now use four classrooms.)
This summer the club is also helping younger siblings of the high school students who frequented it during the school year, Ms. Petrocelli said; “we called all the families ... from the immigrant community that we knew,” and invited them to send their children. Some students and teachers from the school-year club came, and so did some new ones.
“What’s amazing about this – the number of important institutions that are coming together to make this happen,” she marveled. “It’s the church, the Worcester Public Schools, the Chan Medical School.”
The club in turn is reaching out beyond its own work. Ms. Petrocelli said Ms. Desai invited their volunteers to also help teach English to immigrants in The Bridge Brazilian American Center, which shares the building with them.
Mrs. Sallese said she needs volunteers to teach adults for that program.
Through The Bridge, she plans to help Brazilians by bringing in an immigration lawyer for consultation and aiding people with other needs such as passport renewals, registering their children for school and applying for health insurance.
Having come to Worcester from Brazil 25 years ago, and seeing the Brazilian community here growing, she realizes some immigrants don’t know where to go for help, she said. For a long time, her heart has been telling her to do something like this, but it took time to figure out how, she said.
“This will be like an immigrant support center” at the old St. Stephen’s school building, a bridge connecting people to what they need, she said.
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