What Real Support Looks Like
The MEL Community Foundation was founded in 2022 on a simple, uncompromising belief: that every English Learner in Massachusetts deserves a genuine path to college and career success. The Foundation works through targeted grants and strategic partnerships to address the three barriers directly — academic preparation, financial access, and school-community belonging.
Literacy Support
K–12 literacy interventions designed specifically for English Learners, building the reading comprehension and academic language that open doors to college-prep coursework.
Mentorship & Tutoring Grants
Funding for after-school programs that pair EL students with mentors who provide academic support, college guidance, and the sense of belonging that fuels persistence.
Strategic Partnerships
Collaboration with district partners, nonprofits, and community organizations working at the intersection of language equity and college access across Greater Boston.
The Foundation’s theory of change is grounded in the evidence: when you combine strong literacy instruction, mentorship relationships, and real financial support, you increase both high school graduation and college enrollment for English Learners. These interventions work — not independently, but together.
Partners Building the Path
Through its competitive grant process, the MEL Community Foundation invests in organizations and school districts doing exceptional work on the ground. Over 2024 and 2025, the Foundation has made seven grants totaling $78,000 across the following partners:
2024–2025 Grantee Partners
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Minds Matter Boston — College and Career Success Program, pairing high school students from under-resourced communities with mentors and college-access support.
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Everett Public Schools — Elementary Dual Language Program, developing multilingual learners’ biliteracy and academic foundation from the earliest grades.
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Waltham Public Schools — Project-Based Learning at the high school level in science, with a focus on college-preparatory coursework for English Learners.
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Boston Debate League / Debate en Español — Building academic language, argumentation skills, and intellectual confidence in multilingual learners through competitive debate.
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Mattahunt Elementary School (Boston) — English language development support for parents of EL students, equipping families with the tools to navigate the school system alongside their children.
The Role of the Whole Community
College access for multilingual learners is not solely the responsibility of schools or nonprofits. It requires a community-wide commitment: districts that open AP classrooms to EL students, universities that recruit and support multilingual learners, employers who value the cognitive strengths that bilingualism brings, and philanthropists who direct resources toward the students most often left behind.
Massachusetts is a state with extraordinary educational resources — some of the finest universities in the world sit within an hour’s drive of the communities where the college-going gap is widest. The problem is not a shortage of destinations. It is a shortage of supported pathways. That is precisely the gap the MEL Community Foundation was built to close.
“The opportunity for post-secondary education and career advancement should be the norm — not the exception — for English Learners in Massachusetts.”
MEL Community Foundation Mission Statement