A recent Foundation grantee.
Formerly known as Cambridge Community Services and the City Links program, Enroot is a community-based nonprofit with a mission to empower immigrant youth to achieve academic, career, and personal success through inspiring out-of-school experiences.
Enroot’s goals are to help students: 1) Improve academic performance; 2) Demonstrate a greater sense of community and belonging, self-confidence and advocacy; 3) Develop a clear and inspiring pathway for higher education and career; 4) Build a marketable skill set through real-world, paid internships; and 5) Graduate high school prepared to successfully transition to and graduate from post-secondary education.
College degree holders earn nearly $1 million more in a lifetime than those without degrees in the US, yet only 21% of low-income Cambridge youth go on to graduate from college. The achievement gap grows even more significant when factoring in the additional linguistic and cultural challenges that face immigrant students. “Limited-English-Proficiency” students are the lowest performing cohort at CRLS with the lowest on-time graduation rate. Enroot recruits students from the English-Language-Learner Department at CRLS and over 90% of Enroot students are low-income and all will be the first in their families to attend an American university. Program alumni graduate college at twice the rate of their peers with demonstrated increases in self-confidence, advocacy, and leadership skills.
A volunteer mentor admires Enroot’s holistic programming approach:
“What excites me the most about [Enroot] is that they care about the whole student – not just grades or test scores. Through mentoring, tutoring, job opportunities, field trips, and seminars, students get 360 degrees of support on top of their typical school day. The students want to be there, the volunteers keep coming back, and the entire experience is positive, productive, and powerful.” – Ariella, Volunteer Mentor to CRLS Student
