When participants were notified in March that the program would be on hold while library buildings were closed, they told us they were sorry to hear it and that they looked forward to the weekly sessions. Our challenge: How could we meet participants' and volunteers' desire to connect with one another and continue to practice their English skills, while keeping everyone safe?

Our librarians and the volunteer facilitators decided to move the weekly program online to the Zoom platform. They worked together to learn this virtual platform, which was brand-new to everyone at the time, and helped English language learners become comfortable with it as well. The first Zoom program was April 30, and the weekly sessions have been going strong ever since.

Moving online allowed participants to connect and find words to express the new reality. Attendance grew, even drawing international participants. They learned new words like demonstration, unrest, curfew, stress, diversity, freelance, self-employed, patient and doctor. We discussed authoritative resources for health information. And, one participant told us: "I live alone, and so I don’t have anyone to talk to. I feel great that today I had a chance to meet others virtually, and I learned many new words in English."