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The Salvation Army in Aurora, Colorado, made its partnership with the City of Aurora Office of International and Immigrant Affairs official in August 2025. Together, they launched a series of classes to help the city’s growing immigrant population get the skills they need to thrive in the U.S. The courses include English for Work, Citizenship Test Prep and Natural Helpers Leadership Program.
“Our goal is to assist the immigrant and refugee community, so they can integrate into the greater Aurora community successfully,” said Minsoo Song, Senior International Program Coordinator at the City of Aurora Office of International and Immigrant Affairs. “Everybody came to this country with somewhat of an American dream, but it’s not just for an American dream. Most of our community members came to the States so they could provide a better opportunity for their family members, so we want to make sure they can.”
Aurora is known as the most diverse city in the state. And according to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 21.8 percent of Aurora’s population is composed of immigrants, making the need for classes like these crucial.
“The Salvation Army’s mission is twofold. It’s to preach the gospel of Jesus and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination,” said Lieutenant Carl Esquivel, Salvation Army Aurora Corps Officer. “This immigrant population is part of the Aurora community…It’s our responsibility to be able to serve all demographics as long as we are able to do so.”
Song was grateful for the opportunity to work with The Salvation Army for these outreach efforts.
“Partnering with The Salvation Army is such a blessing because they do have the reputation and trust in the community,” Song said.
The partnership with the City of Aurora allows The Salvation Army to expand its reach to immigrants in the community and vice versa. The City of Aurora develops and runs the courses, and The Salvation Army provides the space for participants to learn.
“The Salvation Army serves people from all different, diverse cultural backgrounds, so we were able to serve those communities,” Song said.
Esquivel added: “We have now been able to increase that scope to not only expose people to the love of God, but to put it into tangible, practical personal development for individuals.”
This development is focused on three areas that are covered in the courses, which will be offered regularly each year.
The first class to launch was English for Work, which started in early September 2025 and ran for eight weeks. It was not a standard English as a Second Language (ESL) class. The course is for people who already know the basics of English but need more advanced knowledge specific to their line of work. Participants learn work-related vocabulary for better communication in the workplace.
“Everybody came to this country with somewhat of an American dream, but it’s not just for an American dream. Most of our community members came to the States so they could provide a better opportunity for their family members, so we want to make sure they can.”
Minsoo Song, Senior International Program Coordinator at the City of Aurora Office of International and Immigrant Affairs
“What we’re seeking with this program is to elevate the individual’s capacity, to potentially be able to get a pay raise,” Esquivel said. “That’s the focus of that—moving people from an entry-level position to a higher position within their own work sphere.”
Song said that participants were putting their new knowledge to use in their jobs at the Emmanuel STEM International Preschool, located in the same building as The Salvation Army Aurora Corps.
“It was really fun to see them, and they would come back and say, ‘Oh, I used this phrase last time when I talked to one of the parents when we were talking,’” Song said. “I could definitely see they were able to use some of the things they picked up from the class right away. It’s really rewarding.”
Another participant in the English for Work class, Olga Garces Flores, also experienced similar success. She immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico many years ago and decided to take the class because of its unique focus on building English skills specifically for the workplace.
“The class instructor focused on the English we needed for work, which is what we really needed,” Flores said.
Flores works for Ability Connection Colorado, in a role in which she works with children from infant to preschool age. She’s using the more advanced English she learned in the class to better communicate with her supervisors and coworkers.
“Many times, we learn English just to communicate, but there’s much more to the language. There’s job-specific vocabulary in every job type—from hospitals to law firms,” Flores said. “We have to always be prepared.”
Now that Flores completed the class, she takes with her a sense of accomplishment and appreciation for the camaraderie she built with fellow class participants, many who also worked in the same field as her.
“It felt good to graduate from the class, and I really liked meeting new people,” Flores said. “To have the opportunity to meet other people who are working in the same field as me and have the same hopes and dreams of continuing to learn is extraordinary.”
The Citizenship Test Prep class started in late September 2025 and runs through the end of November 2025. The course covers weekly lessons in U.S. history, government and civics information, as well as practice interview questions to pass their U.S. naturalization test.
“They’re not just memorizing questions and answers,” Song said. “We cover why the question is asked and why this is the answer.”
The timing of the course is especially important as the U.S. citizenship test was updated this year to include 20 civics questions during the oral test—double the amount asked in the previous 2008 version of the test. The list of potential questions that can be asked also increased from 100 questions to 128, so there is more material to study.
“We will be providing this class continuously because, based on national studies, there is a definite increase in income and social status, so we want to make sure our community has that opportunity,” Song said.
“Our goal is to bring people up to self-sufficiency. And so if that looks like increasing your immigration status within the nation that you want to be part of, I think that’s important,” Esquivel said. “If there is no avenue, then people get stuck and they stay the same.”
One more class will begin in January 2026 called Natural Helpers. This is a leadership training program in which immigrants and refugees who are well-versed in the challenges of starting a new life in the U.S. can connect others who are newer in their immigration journey to resources available to them in the community.
“We just want to make sure our communities are well-connected with those available resources,” Song said.
These three courses are just the beginning of a partnership that The Salvation Army and the City of Aurora want to continue to grow in the years to come.
Song and Esquivel hope that through their current efforts, Salvation Army corps attendees will start taking advantage of the classes, and that those who attend the courses from outside The Salvation Army get connected to other programs and services the corps offers, like church services, youth programs and more.
“The hope has always been to increase our impact and expose people to the love of God, no matter what that looks like,” Esquivel said. “That’s our hope—that this partnership continues to do that for years to come.”
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