Cultural Connections Committee

Gate City Immigrant Initiative Meeting Minutes July 22, 2015 9:00AM – 10:00AM City Hall – Auditorium Present: Donna Marceau, Sharon Dalton, Sylvia Gale, Mark Hastbacka, Jenn Hosking, Karen Emis-Williams, Janeth Orozco, Juan Marco, Daniel Attori, Shirley Woodward, Bobbie Bagley, Elizabeth Berry. Meeting commenced at 9:00AM Workgroup Update: Resettlement Presentation – The presentation is scheduled for 9/22/15 from 9AM-12PM at Nashua City Hall. Janeth reports the director, Amy Marchildon, will not be available to do a presentation on that day. Janeth is going to follow up follow up with Amy and inquire if somebody else could do the presentation. The presentation is going to take place of the regular Gate City Immigrant Initiative meeting. Toolkit – ** Janeth shared a toolkit called easy page that was created by Fairgrounds Elementary Nashua School District. The toolkit lists the services providers with basic information medical, food, clothing, etc. Janeth will be contacting Scott Jaquith to inquire if Gate City could use this toolkit. Gate City would add universal symbols to the toolkit to identify the service. Karen – the Cultural Navigators would also make use of this toolkit when they are out in the community with the mentee. Liz – the hospital has developed a resource guide but it’s long. Liz will share that guide with this committee. Symposium:  Janeth - will be creating save the date flyers to give sent out through Contact Contact.  Keynote Speaker: Janeth will be following up with the Endowment for Health in inquire how much time Steve Tobocman will need for his presentation.  American Dream: Rafael Calderon (he is a Veteran – works for Lamprey – Janeth will ask), & a student (Janeth will contact). Suggestions: Sharon & Janeth know an immigrant DACA recepient. Sharon also suggested asking somebody from the Muslim community. Sylvia suggested having a refugee speak through an interpreter.   Afternoon breakout: PART I - Strengthening our Communities Building Safe and Stronger Communities: Law Enforcement Panelist I.C.E. (Cathy Chesley will contact). NPD (Chief Andrew Lavoie – confirmed), Immigration (Cathy Chesley will contact), FBI (Mark Hastbacka – confirmed) (clarifying the role of each organization, what creates a safe community). Perhaps could handout the data from for RED: Racial and Ethnic Disparities – also have a resource table. Facilitator: Devon Chaffe (confirmed) Building Economic Strength and Diversity: Local Minority businesses will share their success and struggles Panelist: Chamber of Commerce, Persian Rugs (Janeth will contact Si), Arc Energy (ask Cathy to contact), Agave (Janeth) PART II – Tools to Success Value of a Multicultural Workplace: At the beginning of the session will show the video of the State police’s dept. recruitment commercial. Mark H will get the video. Open and close this session with: Why it’s important to be a multicultural workplace. Discuss the benefit and value of having a multicultural workplace. Panelist: Bobbie Bagley and Carlos Camacho. Elizabeth Berry confirmed as a facilitator – will also speak about what NCC is also doing. At the end of the session Elizabeth will offer her multicultural awareness workshop training to any organization interested. Pathways and Resources to Success: Panelist: ALC (Lauren – Sharon will contact), Work Ready (Donna Marceau – confirmed), Immigration attorney (importance of citizenship- Catholic Charities: John Wilson). Possible facilitator: Marcos Diaz or Sharon Dalton. Resettlement Agency Update: International Institute: Dan reports they projected for their current fiscal to resettle 50 refugees in Nashua and have 47. They are expecting 3 Burmese individuals that have family ties in Nashua. They still don’t have an office presence. Fiscal Year 2016 – 150 to be resettled in Manchester and 50 in Nashua. Main groups: Congolese, Somali, and Burmese. They are still looking for an office space in Nashua. Ascentria Care Alliance: Shirley reports they had 13 arrivals in July but only 3 in Nashua which were Burmese and Rohingya. There was 1 Burmese family that out-migrated to Georgia. They are expecting 14 refugees this month which all be Congolese and going to Concord. There’s a family of 8 arriving today that have family connection in Concord. They can’t find housing for this family in Concord but they will be temporarily housed. Nashua does have an apt that will be available to accommodate then on 7/31. They will continue to look for permanent housing for this family in Concord. There’s another case of 4 that’s related to the case of 8 that is going to Concord as they found housing for them. There has been a lot of request to place single Burmese and Sara Lanka men. The difficulty with the Sara Lanka refugees is the language and they don’t speak English. They speak a different Rohingyan dialect. Also a lot of request to place Rohingya refugees. Outmigration: The Burmese population want to out-migrate to Georgia as soon as they arrive. The receiving resettlement agency can’t make official transfer which would allow the benefits they are entitled to be transferred to the receiving community. There are expenditures already incurred prior to the refugee arriving i.e. funds to secure the apt, furniture, etc. The refugee would have to relocate on their own. There’s a rule that the refugee is given 3 opportunities to state where they would like to be resettled. The refugee may not be divulging this information for fear it will delay their resettlement. Community Announcements: Latino Festival will be held on 7/26/15 at St Louis de Gonzague. Mark reports the FBI is aware that NH Anti-Immigrant Action Summit is happening in Bedford, NH. This is a hate group and they discuss boarders, undocumented immigrants and that his department is aware of the situation. NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 8/26/15 @ 9AM-10:30AM at City Hall- Auditorium