Portland ESL Network

History:
This wiki was created in March, 2009 as a project to bridge the gap between ESL providors and social service workers. "The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" is a phrase that could describe a problem uncovered while I was at a meeting regarding ESL needs in a specific neighborhood of NE Portland. Throughout the meeting it became apparent that some community NGOs who refer ESL students to programs were unaware of many of the ESL programs available in their own neighborhood. Likewise, some ESL programs are unaware of nearby ESL programs striving to reach out to the same population. There is currently no network bringing together the diverse ESL providers, no sharing of resources, and basically little publicity of many of the ESL services available to students in the Portland area. My proposal for my final project in order to graduate from PSU with a MA TESOL was to provide a solution to this problem through creating a "Portland ESL Network." This wiki page was created as a tool to bring providers, information and resources together. A needs analysis of what potential Portland ESL Network users would like to see on the website was conducted, and a wiki was created to make the website sustainable with the idea that ESL providers would add and update their own information as changes are made in their programs.