ELL Volunteers

The English Language Learners (ELL) Program at Trinity Lutheran Camp Hill has been awarded a grant in the amount of $2,500 from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA). This seed grant program is part of the ELCA’s “Strategy Towards Authentic Diversity” (STAD) which in 2024 allocated a total of $33,000 to ELCA churches nationwide to support the development of innovative diversity, equity, and inclusion projects and programs. Trinity’s grant application was funded in full by the ELCA and it received the maximum amount of funds awarded to any single applicant. 

According to the ELCA’s STAD which was adopted in 2019, “Faithfulness to the Biblical mandate to proclaim the Gospel requires fostering actions that promote equity, fairness, and justice across the ELCA and society.” The ELCA required that projects relate to a priority area named in the STAD. The priority area chosen for Trinity’s application was “Healing Actions From Forms of Oppression”. This priority area was chosen because many of the program’s students are refugees fleeing countries fractured by war, violence, and/or persecution. 

The ELCA and Trinity Lutheran Church intend to collaborate on this fledgling ministry to build a sustainable, high-impact ministry that is replicable. We intend to shepherd additional ELCA expertise and resources into Trinity’s ELL program. We also intend to disseminate Trinity’s successful ELL program module to other ELCA churches across the nation so they have a road map for how to launch an ELL ministry. This organizational partnership will allow Trinity to access high-value resources while also enabling Trinity’s ELL volunteers to have an even more profound impact on lives locally and across the country.

For more information on the ELL program, please email: TrinityLutheranESL@gmail.com or call 717-745-6075.