Where’s Bill? Visiting Las Casas in East Oakland

By Bill Somerville, PVF’s Founder

Recently, PVF’s Founder Bill Somerville visited Las Casas, an English as a Second Language program in East Oakland.

When many of us are at dinner, about 150 men and women are gathering 3 nights a week to learn English, with five levels of instruction available from Introduction through Intermediate. It is impressive that right on the dot at 7pm everyone is present – no stragglers, with an eagerness to learn.

Las Casas is open to adults from all language and educational backgrounds, but the majority of their students live in the surrounding Fruitvale community neighborhood and are native Spanish speakers. The program is fully operated by an all volunteer staff and aims to serve only low-level ESL students who do not have other educational opportunities.

It’s grassroots programs like this that PVF searches for and supports. We look for commitment, dedication, and results in such programs in order to decide on funding. This program has them all. Las Casas is currently celebrating 20 years of service to their community and PVF is honored to provide funding to support their future accomplishments.