Cultural Connections Committee

Minutes from Ethnic Awareness Committee Meeting April 15th 2014. Room 208, City Hall, 3:30 pm Members present: Tom Lopez, Jared Barbosa, Carlos Camacho, Janeth Orozco, Diane Sheehan, Bernadette Melton- Plante, Jen Hosking, Sharon Dalton and Scott Jaquith. Absent Members : Karen Emis- Williams, Andrew Smith, Paul Bergeron, Mary Ann Melizzi- Golja, Jennifer Hinderer, Patrica Howson, Rhonda Karlsberry, James Lima, Claudie Mahar, Ellias Muchuma Niva and Dendrea Smith. 1. Chairman Tom Lopez opened the meeting at 3:30PM and Janeth Orozco- Sanchez read the mission statement of the Ethnic Awareness Committee. 2. Approval of Minutes : Tom reported the need still for a secretary. Bernadette stated she would assist with minutes when she can but at this point is not able to make the commitment long term. No other members were able to assist with this task. The March minutes were reviewed and changes to number 5 were made. A motion was made to approve the March Minutes a motion was made by Carlos Camacho and seconded by Sharon Dalton. 3. The members discussed the missing January minutes from the EAC meeting and Tom reported he is trying to locate them so they can be posted at the request of Alderman Melizzi - Golja. Alderman Diane Sheehan informed the group that minutes need to be posted 5 days after the meeting. 4. Gate City Initiative : An update on the Gate City Initiative was provided by Janeth Orozco Sanchez; Janeth provided information on the March 26th  meeting and provided an update on Landlord challenges and legal assistance. 5. Janeth reported to the committee that Nashua will be hosting its first Citizenship Ceremony in the fall of 2014. Nashua Community College will be hosting this event. Janeth reported that initially it was the Welcoming Committee of Nashua that was contacted in regards to this event. Tom recommended that Janeth get back in touch and let the organizers know that both the Gate City Initiative and the Ethnic Awareness Committee would be very happy to co-sponsors this event and to find out how we can help with this event. 6. Youth Ambassador Program : Janeth reported they were very pleased with the turn out for this program and a lot of the Youth did not want this experience to end. Several discussions were held about fund raising efforts and three (3) major suggestions were made by the Youth Ambassadors, they were a local restaurant fund raising effort suggesting ( 3 ) local restaurants they were were Chipolata, I Hop and Papa Gino’s. A 5K road race. The third suggestion was a lock in party to develop positive change. Tom suggested that Betsy Hood at the DMC had indicated they could possibly help with financial support. This group the Youth Ambassadors had stated they would like to stay together. Suggestions were made that this group could possibly assist with future trainings and orientations they could hopefully stay in touch monthly. Sergeant Carlos Camacho reported to the committee about his hour and half presentation to the Youth Ambassador and how interested the participants were asking great questions and discussing Skate Board Laws. Carlos reported that one of the students in the program asked for a Police Officer Application form. Tom, Janeth and Carlos reported on what  a nice job the Alderman did and how nice it was to see the First Nashua Youth Ambassador’s graduate at City Hall and get local recognition. 7. Community Outreach: A discussion was held on the Community Social held at the Esta Brook Grill in March, unfortunately this community social was not as well attended as the previous social’s and only (2) people attended along with the EAC members. The Community Social for May will be at the Agave Azul’s at 96 Main Street Nashua, the socials are held on the second Tuesday of the month so May’s will be May 13th from 5:30PM to 7:00PM. 8. Publicity : A discussion was held about having to update our logo and currently we have no money in the budget to do that , Bernadette and Jared are working on the logo and Tom suggested we do a word document and make ( 5 ) copies of each. Discussions were held about the EAC writing an article about the activities of the EAC and that both Bradford Randall and Joseph Cote of the Nashua Telegraph are very interested in the activities of what is happening in the Nashua community and that they might be good contacts to pursue. th 9. Summer Fun: The official kick off is June 7 2014 at Greeley Park. The theme this year is multi-cultural plus World Cup Soccer. The World Cup 2014 will be played this year. Jared Barbosa is coordinating the World Cup Soccer events and activities. Jared will be meeting with soccer committee members and the hope is a soccer tournament will be held this summer. Charles Collinson and Dillon Smith are also working on this subcommittee. A meeting is been held on Wednesday April 16th at City Hall. A need for water bottles for this event was requested. Additionally free soccer clinics are going to be offered and hopefully 150 youth will attend this event. Jared and the committee will be contacting the Nashua  Youth Soccer Association to inform them of this event. Discussions were held about contacting sporting stores and the World Soccer Store in Nashua to see if they would help with Sponsorship. The group discussed if this might be a good opportunity to keep the Youth Ambassadors engaged and have them help out with this event. Diane informed Jared she would be happy to go with him to visit with some potential vendors and although she cannot solicit anything she would be happy to provide moral support. 10.Fall Cultural Festival: Discussions were held about Nashua hosting a fall festival at this point it is all very speculative and the time factor is of great concern. A brief discussion was held about Upward People and possibly looking into seeing if in 2016 we could consider this opportunity. Scott spoke very highly about their production as did Diane and it was suggested the EAC go to Lowell this year and see a production to determine if we would like to pursue this. 11.Multi- Cultural Leadership Group: Sharon Dalton reported on the Nashua Leadership Series which was sponsored by the Granite State Organizing Project that bought together people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life to develop leadership skills and to achieve personal goals. The series ran from February through early April and was held in conjunction with the Nashua Area Interfaith Council. Sharon reported that some of the participants were Burundi immigrants and people who had lived in Sudan. Sharon shared with the group that the program draws a very diverse group and some of the participants were parents of the children who had completed the Youth Ambassador program. Sharon shared with the group that some people were learning English, and some working towards their GED’s. Sharon reported that some of the participants commented on Nashua not been a very welcoming City, and that they  found it very difficult to find information in one area that addressed heritage trails, mine falls, adult learning center, names and locations of the 55 parks that Nashua has. A suggestion that was made that it would be most helpful if we could have a welcome center for new people that is in one area. 12. A discussion was held about children and their families that have been turned away from Nashua City schools because they do not have the original documents for birth certificates, transcripts, and immunizations. In conversation it appears it is one individual who is responsible for these actions. Not all families are able to produce original documents if they have had to flee a country or have lost documents in a fire. Scott did report that these challenges can be worked with within the school district and he gave several examples of how to work within these rigid guidelines. These concerns will be followed up on for these families who are affected. Sharon reported she has worked with at least (2) families who have had this struggle. 13.Community Announcements: The Gate City Interfaith Breakfast will be held on June 13th at 7-30AM the Mayor is planning on attending .The cost of the breakfast is $15.00 per person. The hope is to have 100 people attend staff personnel from Rivier College, The Temple, Catholic Church and Kathie Chelsey are helping to co-ordinate this event .PSA ( Positive Street Art ) will be showing off the mural they have been working on.( 1) city one book will be rolling out at the end of April the book has been selected. This event is sponsored by Nashua Public Library. Libraries all over the country will be reading the same book and the author will be coming to Nashua. Name of the book and author still not disclosed. Jared Barbosa was elected as the President of the Nashua Soccer Council. Congratulations were given to Jared by the EAC.  14.The meeting adjourned at 4:45PM a motion was made by Diane Sheehan and was seconded by Carlos Camacho. Respectfully Submitted Bernadette Melton- Plante.