ORONO – University of Maine Spanish professor Kathleen March and five current or former students have embarked upon a cooperative pilot project tutoring Spanish-speaking migrant workers Down East.

The twist, however, is instead of helping Spanish-speaking families with English as a second language, tutors will bring the worker families up to speed in their own language, Spanish, before tackling English.

March and Candace Austin, an educational consultant and founder of Mano en Mano, a Milbridge nonprofit social service organization, decided to cooperate in finding 10 bilingual people who could be trained and certified by Literacy Volunteers of America founder Ruth Colvin and begin work this fall with families from countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Austin tutors Hispanic families in English through the Milbridge Public Library and schools in Milbridge, a community where 12 percent of the population – mostly berry pickers, wreath makers and fish factory workers – speak Spanish.

She found that many of the migrant family adults were unable to read and write beyond third- or fourth-grade levels in their own language and were unable to transition from Spanish to English.

“It’s difficult teaching English as a second language before they even have the first,” Austin said.

The suspension of the state Migrant Education Program last summer brought enough new people to her door, Austin said, that she called upon March to help put together the Literacy Volunteers certification workshop and find people willing to travel to Milbridge to tutor families. Half the tutors are from the Milbridge area and half are from the university community.

The yearlong tutoring project is partially funded by a $25,000 grant from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. If successful, the program will become a national model, Austin said.

“It’s so exciting,” said March, who is among the cadre of tutors, “because this ties into why I got into Spanish in the first place – an interest in doing community work.”

Using UMaine students to assist Spanish-speaking families helps the university extend its resources beyond the classroom, March said. Language students can work with diverse populations and serve a public good without ever leaving the state.

“It’s out of the classroom, but it also is just as valuable as lessons in the classroom, and it helps students recognize the human and professional value of their linguistic skills,” March said.