How One Volunteer Opportunity Inspired Joan From Connecticut to Teach English in Her Community

Joan from Connecticut always thought of herself as a professional do-gooder. Throughout her career, she held jobs as a volunteer coordinator and special education advocate for children, working at various organizations in and out of the social-impact sector.

So, when COVID-19 prevented in-person gatherings, she naturally turned to volunteering.

“Everything was shut down and so depressing. I wanted to do something different,” Joan said. “I decided to look for a volunteer opportunity to help out, and it needed to be virtual.”

That’s how Joan found ENGin, an organization devoted to connecting Ukrainians with volunteers for online English-language conversation. She began teaching English to a young Ukrainian woman, Lesya, who lived a few hours outside of Kiev with her husband. For one hour each week, Joan logged onto Google Meet from her laptop and used the lesson plans provided by ENGin to discuss books and movies.

“Lesya was a little nervous when we first started meeting because she didn’t think her English was good enough,” Joan said. “I told her, ‘Listen, I’m not here to judge you. I’m here to help you learn English.’ Having a conversation became so much easier after that.”

In Ukraine, people often study English but rarely have the chance to practice speaking it aloud. Joan focused on building vocabulary, easing pronunciation challenges (especially the tricky “V” and “W”), and most importantly, calming the fear of making mistakes during the learning process.

Almost immediately, these lessons became about more than tutoring a stranger halfway across the world. The two women talked about life, motherhood, and the war in Ukraine. Joan sent her new friend a dozen English-language board books to read to her first-born son. In return, Lesya and her husband mailed Joan a blanket for her birthday.

“To my great pleasure, I became a long distance Great Aunt! It's just been a wonderful relationship, and it made me realize that I could be doing the same thing here in my community,” Joan said.

Branching out to help others in her community

Joan asked the director of her local community center if they wanted support with providing virtual English lessons, similar to how she’d been volunteering for ENGin.

Over the last year, some of the people taking English-language classes had stopped attending. Even though they had lived in the United States for years, many of the students are immigrants and afraid of being targeted for their immigration status. Others had a hard time balancing in-person classes with busy schedules, juggling work and their personal lives.

If Joan offered virtual lessons to students who couldn't attend in-person classes, the center would be able to continue serving their community members.

“I’ve had 14 students so far, and most of them have come through the community center,” Joan said. “But I recently sold my house and met a young woman who didn’t speak English. I asked her if she wanted to learn, and gave her an old computer of mine so she could attend lessons virtually. Her two teenage daughters have joined us, and now we have a mini classroom.”

At age 64 and now retired, Joan is candid about what volunteering has brought her life. When she was isolated from others and wanted to try something new, raising her hand for a volunteer opportunity introduced her to a new community. And now, she is friends with groups of people—in Ukraine, and down the street—who just need someone to talk to them in English.

“I think about all those retirees who may not have many connections with other people anymore—this is such a great way to connect with people in your own community,” Joan said. “Maybe you can’t teach in person, or you can only devote an hour a week to this. Whatever your schedule, if you speak English fairly well, then you can offer to help out.”

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If you're looking for a way to teach English virtually, find opportunities on Idealist! Your support can make a world of difference to someone in need, and help foster connections around the world.