Conversation
Partners
The core of the organization
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Conversation Partners are exceptional individuals who hold a love of their language and sharing that with students through language learning. Their passion for language and culture provides them with unique expertise to help others in their language learning journey.
Conversation Partners come from diverse geographies and cultures. They are originally from Syria, Iraq, Mexico, Venezuela, the United States, Costa Rica, Colombia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Conversations Unbound welcomes all those who identify as having a background of forced displacement
Though all Conversation Partners have a background of forced displacement, no displacement experience is the same. Some have fled violent conflict or persecution. Others lacked job opportunities in their home country and were forced to migrate to support themselves and their families. Still others are first-generation citizens negotiating their displacement history within teir xenophobic, anti-immigrant contexts.
We recognize that forced displacement is both an immediate, raw experience and one that can impact families for generations.
Meet the Conversation Partners
Impact for Conversation Partners
Through working with Conversations Unbound, Partners earn an income that can make a difference for their livelihood. Forcibly displaced people face high barriers to employment and education, making it challenging to reestablish their lives in a new place and start to earn an income. For some, this program acts as supplemental income to make ends meet. For many this is the only source of employment accessible. We estimate that the program increases Partners' income by between 5-20x.
Coaching students on their conversational skills in a foreign language also allows displaced people to gain new, transferable skills as online educators, strengthening their resumes and opening new job opportunities.
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Income earned directly benefits Partners' families. For example, those in refugee camps have used their earnings to fund their children’s education outside of the camp, breaking cycles of impoverishment. Participants also report that this work restores a sense of dignity and self-confidence too often stripped away by the dehumanizing experience of displacement and aid reliance.