Mother-to-Mother: Teaching English And Creating Community For Immigrant Moms

PARK SLOPE & SUNSET PARK — Britni Blackketter is all about service. She pursues opportunities to both serve and create communities wherever she lives. After settling in Park Slope two years ago, it was only natural she sought to serve and created a community of mothers seeking language classes.

“I wanted to focus more on education,” Blackketter, who has worked in nonprofits for 10 years, says. “I looked for gaps and found there were no ESL services for women with kids four years and younger. I felt like this would be a key way to help mothers feel empowered and improve their lives, and hopefully their children’s lives.”

Seeing that lots of people can’t afford childcare in order to attend English-language classes, Blackketter founded the emerging nonprofit, Mother to Mother Brooklyn. Its mission is to provide ESL classes for moms with young children, while also creating a community.

“A lot wait until their kids are older,” Blackketter explains. “Our classes allow moms to bring kids.”

Operating mainly in Sunset Park, which has Brooklyn’s second largest immigrant community, Mother to Mother partnered with another nonprofit MixTeca Organization to start the ESL classes. Back in May, about ten women came to the classes, with or without their kids. The current goal is to get 25 women into these classes.

“It’s taken a year,” Blackketter says of Mother to Mother’s development. “You have to gain trust [in the community].”

But word is getting around about Mother to Mother. A recent back-to-school supplies drive drew fifty families. Local churches are partnering up, and there are plans in the coming months for an after-school program that would provide tutoring for the children, while their mothers take English classes.

In the meantime, Mother to Mother has been creating community between the mothers participating in the classes. So far, the participants are from Central and South America, and have little opportunities to mingle with others from outside their families.

“We give people a chance to naturally come together,” Blackketter explains. “It widens their circle. They often feel isolated. So we bring cultures together that don’t usually interact.”

Besides learning English together, the mothers have created programs for each other where they share each other’s cultures. There have been chocolate-making and guacamole-making classes, as well as haircutting gatherings.

As for other cultures coming together in Sunset Park and beyond, Blackketter says she would love to make that happen. “That’s the long-term goal. It would take time, though.”

Born and raised in the Northwest, Blackketter has a strong background in the nonprofit sector. A qualified ESL instructor, she is currently working towards a Masters’ in Early Childhood Education at Hunter College, while raising two young children with her Australian musician spouse. She and her husband spent six years in London, where Blackketter created a mothers’ group for those who were homeless or fleeing domestic violence.

“The goal was to create space for community,” Blackketter says of her work in London. “I like to work with women or youth in need of help. I was working with women from many different immigrant backgrounds, but a big difference was that most of the women were going through a very difficult time of crisis, involving domestic violence, poverty and homelessness or significant visa issues surrounding refugee statuses.”

“Motherhood can be challenging enough,” she continues. “We underestimate ourselves. We need to come together and help each other on common grounds.”

As of now, Mother to Mother runs strictly on volunteerism. Blackketter’s partner, Sarah Wang, is the Education Director helps teach the classes alongside Blackketter. There are plans for interns to help develop the nonprofit, which just started its 501c 3 filing. It is also set to be incorporated by the end of the year.

So far, Mother to Mother operates strictly in Sunset Park, though there is room to grow. Park Slope and Bay Ridge are areas to consider for expansion, but as Blackketter explains, “we’re not there yet.”

Mother to Mother Brooklyn currently has a GoFundMe page to help raise funds to further help the community it serves. Running a nonprofit is not easy, but Blackketter would not have it any other way.

“It is so important to find community,” she says. “It can be awkward and complicated but I think it’s better to try and to learn from others along the way, than to do nothing at all.  We all have a lot more in common than we think, especially as mothers and wanting the best for our families.”