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In This Issue:
HOGAR STAFF Lorraine LaVia Education Services:
Hope Adair Brooke Hammond Pérez Danny Quinn Bill Kelly Krupskaya Elliott
Michelle Sardone Mike Elliott
Social Services:
Hogar Immigrant Services |
As hot as the temperatures are outside these days, things are heating up at Hogar, as well. Catholic Charities began its new fiscal year on July 1, and the Education team is gearing up to launch the Fall 2011 semester of adult education classes around the Diocese. After a hiatus of several years, I am pleased to announce that we are bringing classes back to Alexandria. Thanks to the patient but persistent efforts of Hogar Education Services Manager Bill Kelly, we were able to get a meeting with the new pastor at St. Rita parish, Father Daniel Gee. After meeting with Bill and Brooke Hammond-Perez, Father Gee invited us back to offer English as a Second Language (ESL) classes to his parishioners, as well as to other immigrants in the Alexandria area. This now brings the total FY12 sites to 10. This includes the main site here at Hogar in Falls Church, eight parish-based sites across the diocese, and a Citizenship site at a Methodist church near St. Margaret’s in Woodbridge. If you have questions about this new site, please contact Hope Adair at hadair@ccda.net. For more details about all of our sites, registration dates, etc., check out the Education page on our website at www.hogarimmigrantservices.org . With the start of this new fiscal year, we await the news on two major funding sources. The EL/Civics grant from the VA Department of Education fund our ESL and Citizenship program here at Hogar. And the Citizenship & Integration Grant from the Department of Homeland Security funds the Legal team’s naturalization application workshops as well as Citizenship classes around the Diocese. Together these two grants equal a quarter of a million dollars in annual funding for Hogar. We should hear about both before the next E-News comes out, so please keep Hogar in your thoughts and prayers. In addition to the generous donation of time by our wonderful volunteers, these grants allow a small team of 19 people to affect the lives of thousands and thousands of immigrants each year in this area. I hope you will read the stories below with great interest. We would appreciate your passing along information about our classes and upcoming workshops to your respective communities. And we would be grateful if you could send interested friends, family, and coworkers our way as volunteers. The need for new volunteers is particularly great this year. As always, I want to end by thanking all of you-- volunteers, coworkers, partners, and donors alike—for your continued support of Hogar and its deserving clients. Blessings,
Volunteers Needed!
. The Legal Team is pleased to introduce our two law student summer interns, Leah Wissow and Gabriela Munoz. Leah and Gaby are both rising second year law students at local law schools—Leah at American University’s Washington College of Law and Gaby at George Washington University Law School. Gaby is originally from Peru but grew up in Alabama and Leah is from the Baltimore area. Both Gaby and Leah have enjoyed their time interning at Hogar, and reflected that their work this summer has reminded them of why they wanted to go to law school. “It’s given me a better idea of what it means to be a public interest lawyer, both the rewarding and challenging sides,” Gaby noted, while Leah mentioned that working with clients here at Hogar has given her an appreciation for “the human side of the law.” We have really enjoyed having both of them here and are sad that the summer is almost drawing to a close. Both Leah and Gaby have been able to work on some interesting cases and we’ve greatly benefitted from their excellent research skills, assistance performing intake with new clients, and invaluable help preparing affirmative applications. We wish them both the best of the luck in the future and hope that they keep in touch! We will be holding our next Citizenship application workshop on Saturday August 27th 2011 at St. Anthony of Padua parish at 3305 Glen Carlyn Road, Falls Church, Virginia. Registration opens at 10:00 a.m. Staff attorneys and trained volunteers will be on hand to assist lawful permanent residents in completing their applications to become U.S. citizens. Interested applicants should call 703-534-9805 x 250 to pre-register and find out what they need to bring to the workshop. The Fall semester is fast approaching and many of our stellar ESL, Computer and Citizenship volunteer teachers are returning for yet another semester. (Naturally our Naturalization and Office volunteers are also returning, not that they ever left for a summer break J). We welcome all teachers back with open arms since we can’t hold classes without you all. Your dedication, generosity and warmth inspire us all to keep doing what we’re doing as staff members to further progress our organization. In the coming months all of our students across all sites will yet again benefit from passionate, fun and experienced volunteer teachers. We’re also happy to welcome new volunteers aboard and hope that they will enjoy their experience with us. Thanks in advance for the fantastic job you all will do on behalf of the immigrant community.
The Legal Team has had many wonderful client victories thus far this summer but we wanted to highlight the touching story of one who just achieved his dream of becoming a United States Citizen. Mr. Zribi, a political asylee originally from Tunisia, came to the United States several years ago. After waiting for several years to become eligible to apply for Citizenship, he approached Hogar’s legal team seeking assistance with his Naturalization application. Although Mr. Zribi is legally blind and probably could have qualified for an exemption to the Naturalization exam, he was determined to master the 100 questions on civics and U.S. history. On the day of the exam, Mr. Zribi passed with flying colors, answering each question thrown at him with ease. This really came as no surprise to his Hogar attorney, Christie Turner, who knew that Mr. Zribi, a university lecturer and holder of multiple degrees, would have no problem at all! Fortunately, USCIS was able to schedule Mr. Zribi for an oath ceremony the same day. Christie had the privilege of accompanying him to the Naturalization Ceremony. “It was a highly memorable and moving event, and an honor to be able to assist Mr. Zribi throughout the process,” reports Christie. Mr. Zribi will now finally be able to journey back to Tunisia, and will be able to see his aging parents for the first time in more than a decade. His story helps us all reflect on the privilege that most of us have as United States citizens simply by virtue of being born here—and on the wonderfully sweet honor of assisting deserving individuals like Mr. Zribi in attaining those same rights and privileges.
Improving Retention by Building Community Every adult ESL class struggles to retain its students. Our students are hard-working individuals who are oftentimes working multiple jobs and are taking care of their own families as well as their extended families. It is hard to balance life, work, and school, especially in the midst of a new and unfamiliar country. One of the best ways to improve retention is to foster a supportive classroom environment. Students should feel comfortable and have a good rapport with their teachers as well as with their classmates. This will motivate students to come to class, they may even look forward to it as some special time for themselves- a time when they can connect with other immigrants and pursue their own goals. In addition, its important to make it clear to all students from the very first day of class that they are always welcome in that class, no matter how many days of class they have missed. Many students worry that if they miss one or two classes, they will be kicked out of the program. Teachers need to actively encourage students to keep in touch with their classmates in order to find out what they missed, and let them know that they are welcome to come back at any time in the semester. After all, they have already paid for the class! In addition to repeating ad nauseum our "open-door" policy (our door is always open to all students during the semester during which they have registered), we suggest you be sure to build community and student investment in the following ways:
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