About
Education Programs offers home-based tutoring and mentoring, daytime and after-school academic assistance, and social emotional support and mentoring. The program includes English Language and Literacy classes, Vocational English classes, Citizenship Preparation classes, and a Women’s Initiative family literacy program with parent classes and early childhood education for preschool-aged children. Education Programs also includes kindergarten readiness support, summer camps, and parent classes that explain early childhood education activities and demonstrate parent-child activities for each developmental stage.
• Ages: 1–18 years old
Education Programs is part of Refugee & Immigrant Transitions (RIT), a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 1982 as the Refugee Women’s Program. Education is at the core of RIT’s services, and RIT provides free education, family engagement, and community leadership programs. RIT’s work is rooted in a strengths-based approach.
Home-based tutoring and mentoring is RIT’s oldest program, and trained volunteers make a long-term commitment to weekly tutoring and mentoring in students’ homes. In this home-based program, volunteers act as caring adult role models. Programs are kept culturally and linguistically sensitive by engaging bilingual and bicultural staff and youth leaders, and newcomer community leaders partner with teachers as interpreters, childcare assistants, and cultural liaisons.
Adult classes are taught by RIT staff teachers, all of whom are credentialed professionals. These adult classes are based on curriculum that responds to the needs of the student population, and students are assessed using the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS). Early childhood education runs at the same time as parent classes as part of the Women’s Initiative family literacy program, and proven methodologies are used to foster children’s interpersonal and social emotional skills, fine and gross motor skills, self-expression, problem-solving, independence, and English. Parent class and early childhood teachers meet regularly to ensure continuity between programs, and in parent classes, children’s stages of development and developmental milestones are explained. Parents are also assisted with enrollment into mainstream pre-k and kindergarten programs.
RIT summer camps provide education and community building opportunities that allow students to continue their adjustment process. During these camps, youth practice English, share their culture with others, make lasting friendships, and discover the beauty of the Bay Area.
RIT works closely with partners around the Bay Area including schools, school districts, refugee resettlement agencies, and other nonprofits. RIT is on the steering committee of the East Bay Refugee and Immigrant Forum and is a member of the San Francisco Coalition of Asylee, Immigrant, and Refugee Services and the Refugee and Immigrant Forum of Santa Clara County. Programs build cross-cultural bridges by engaging volunteers, and Family Engagement activities connect newcomer families to community resources and reduce social isolation. Newcomer community leaders and Community Leaders provide multilingual assistance and act as community and cultural liaisons.
A former student described the impact of participating by saying, “RIT program is a helpful program... to push you to learn more about the language, to learn more how can you survive in the U.S.”
Last updated June 6, 2026.
• Ages: 1–18 years old
Education Programs is part of Refugee & Immigrant Transitions (RIT), a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 1982 as the Refugee Women’s Program. Education is at the core of RIT’s services, and RIT provides free education, family engagement, and community leadership programs. RIT’s work is rooted in a strengths-based approach.
Home-based tutoring and mentoring is RIT’s oldest program, and trained volunteers make a long-term commitment to weekly tutoring and mentoring in students’ homes. In this home-based program, volunteers act as caring adult role models. Programs are kept culturally and linguistically sensitive by engaging bilingual and bicultural staff and youth leaders, and newcomer community leaders partner with teachers as interpreters, childcare assistants, and cultural liaisons.
Adult classes are taught by RIT staff teachers, all of whom are credentialed professionals. These adult classes are based on curriculum that responds to the needs of the student population, and students are assessed using the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS). Early childhood education runs at the same time as parent classes as part of the Women’s Initiative family literacy program, and proven methodologies are used to foster children’s interpersonal and social emotional skills, fine and gross motor skills, self-expression, problem-solving, independence, and English. Parent class and early childhood teachers meet regularly to ensure continuity between programs, and in parent classes, children’s stages of development and developmental milestones are explained. Parents are also assisted with enrollment into mainstream pre-k and kindergarten programs.
RIT summer camps provide education and community building opportunities that allow students to continue their adjustment process. During these camps, youth practice English, share their culture with others, make lasting friendships, and discover the beauty of the Bay Area.
RIT works closely with partners around the Bay Area including schools, school districts, refugee resettlement agencies, and other nonprofits. RIT is on the steering committee of the East Bay Refugee and Immigrant Forum and is a member of the San Francisco Coalition of Asylee, Immigrant, and Refugee Services and the Refugee and Immigrant Forum of Santa Clara County. Programs build cross-cultural bridges by engaging volunteers, and Family Engagement activities connect newcomer families to community resources and reduce social isolation. Newcomer community leaders and Community Leaders provide multilingual assistance and act as community and cultural liaisons.
A former student described the impact of participating by saying, “RIT program is a helpful program... to push you to learn more about the language, to learn more how can you survive in the U.S.”
Last updated June 6, 2026.
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