Jan 2015 cric newsletter

Welcome to the first ever CRIC annual newsletter. In

these pages, you’ll find a report on these CRIC activities:

• Our Most Sincere Thanks

• CRIC’s Progress on Gaining Nonprofit Status

• Year-end Walk-In Hours Report

• A Successful Drop-In Employment Clinic

• Report from AmeriCorps VISTAs

• CRIC in the News

• Next Season’s Community Garden

• Upcoming Events

2014 was an enormous year for CRIC. Thank you for being a part of it!

Nelda Ault, President

Sarah Kerley-Weeks, President Elect

Jessica Lucero, Secretary

Teri Painter, Treasurer

Lorien Belton, Trustee

Kate Stephens, Trustee

CRIC Founding Board

CRIC’s mission is to promote integration, economic self-sufficiency, & positive connections among refugees, immigrants, & the wider community through improved access to services and education.

Annual Newsletter

January 2015

Cache Refugee & Immigrant Connection

@CacheRefugees

CRIC Annual Newsletter 2015

Jennifer Sapp & the other vegetable gardeners at Cache High School

Hollee Peterson, Utah Legal Services

Antonia Keller

Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation

Logan Library

First Presbyterian Church

St. John’s Episcopal Church

Cache Valley Unitarian Universalists

Nathan & Chris Hult

Bryan Dixon

Square One Printing

Christian Fritz

Carina Borsch

Jorri Falslev

Sage Callahan

Lark Bateman

Thank you

CRIC owes where it is today to these individuals and organizations! Thank you for your donated time, funds, and expertise.

Julie Sheen

Russell Ray

Ed & Susan Redd

Ronda & Sam Menlove

Gerald Brown & the Utah Refugee Services Office

Michael Pekarske

Luz Maria Carreno

English Language Center of Cache Valley

Melanie Domenech Rodriguez & Multicultural Psychology Students

Flora Shrode & Paul Jakus

Todd Milovich

Kit Mohr

Joshua Timothy

Paul Jacobs

Hadis Elmi

Maya Stephens

Dennise Gackstetter

Susan Guy

Logan DWS Office

Jim Peacock

Aggie Blue Bikes


2014 Walk-In Report

On June 30, CRIC officially incorporated with the state of Utah. By registering the CRIC Articles of Incorporation, the door to opening a bank account, purchasing board and liability insurance, registering for a charity permit with the Department of Consumer Protection, and eventually filing for 501(c)(3) status has been opened. We hope to have the last paperwork filed in early 2015!

Walk-In Hours made up CRIC’s primary project in the past year. Thanks to the generous donation of space by the Neighborhood Nonprofit Housing Corporation (located at 195 W Golf Course Road) and the Logan Library (255 North Main), CRIC was able to accommodate over 800 walk-in visits. Refugee families brought job applications, bills, school paperwork, appointments, and other needs to 2014’s Walk-In Hours. In many cases, CRIC volunteers were able to refer refugees to other community resources for further assistance.

Walk-In Hours will continue in the 2015 at the locations listed above. We are at Neighborhood Nonprofit on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4-6 p.m. and in the Temple Fork Room of the Logan Library on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Walk-In Hours 2014 Total Visits 848 Total Walk-In Sessions 285 Total Volunteer Hours 566

The founding board is profoundly grateful for the efforts of Michael Pekarske, Bryan Dixon, and Nathan Hult, who jumped headfirst into this paperwork process and showed us the way. Thanks also to the board of Nordic United for their presentation and advice.


Photo by Kate Stephens

During Fall Semester, Dr. Melanie Domenech Rodriguez’s Multicultural Psychology students staffed a successful employment and citizenship clinic. Over thirty students had the opportunity to sit with refugees who were interested in searching for employment and in preparing to apply for citizenship. Thanks to the generosity of Pastors Paul Heins and Derek Forbes and the rest of the members of First Presbyterian Church, there were 75 visits made during the 24 hours that the clinic was open over the course of the semester.

The clinic was featured in the Herald Journal (see the article here http://bit.ly/1u75wzG) and other photos can be found on the USU Service Learning Program webpage (www.usu.edu/servicelearning).

CRIC is excited to partner with Dr. Terry Peak’s Social Work 2400 class for Spring Semester. In addition to providing assistance with job-related matters and citizenship preparation, students will also be coaching anyone who would like to prepare for the written driving test, and Bridgerland Literacy will be providing English Conversation practice.

Psychology student Antonia Keller cannot be thanked enough for all the work she put into the fall semester clinic!

Report from the AmeriCorps VISTAs CRIC benefits from the AmeriCorps VISTA national service program, thanks to the Utah Refugee Services Office in Salt Lake City and the Education Outreach office in USU’s Center for Civic Engagement and Service-Learning.

At the beginning of the year, VISTA Michael Pekarske was elbow-deep in nonprofit status paperwork, creating marketing materials for CRIC, presenting to community organizations

and university classes, and generally accomplishing tasks that CRIC volunteers could not do on their own. CRIC has Michael to thank for a stunning brochure, a Powerpoint presentation with visual impact, a beautiful thank you card, and much more. He did such a great job that the Refugee Services Office offered him a full time job last spring.

In August, CRIC welcomed Luz Maria Carreno as the new VISTA, who immediately picked up where Michael left off, continuing to build the relationships with refugee youth and young adults that she’d started as a volunteer the previous year. Here is Luz, reporting on some of her current projects:


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Galaxy Club at LHS Galaxy Club is a new after school club at Logan High School that started in late September. This program includes homework help, as well as different enrichment activities like service, rock climbing, dance, etc. The Educational Outreach Office at Utah State University and 4-H teamed together to create this program after Scott Williams, Cache County Extension Agent, received a DWS Safe Passages Grant. The program was created to help students to succeed academically and start thinking about college. We have had a diverse group of students involved such as refugee, immigrant, and native-born students. Much

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support has been provided to the Galaxy Club from different groups and individuals at USU. Dennise Gackstetter, an art professor from USU, had an ongoing art project for our students, which included making journals from scratch. Dennise along with five of her art students walked the Galaxy Club through the steps of making these journals. We also had USU’s My Bad Crew Hip-Hop dance group come and teach our students some Hip-Hop moves. From these dance presentations, the Galaxy Club choreographed two dances for Smile on Your Brother and for the Alliance for Youth “Lights On” event in the Kent Concert Hall. The Galaxy Club has also visited the USU campus for two events, Diwali: The Festival of

Lights and a basketball game. The Indian Student Association provided discounted tickets to their event and HURD provided free tickets to a basketball game. In addition, GEAR UP has provided snacks for the students and paid for the Diwali tickets. However, Galaxy Club would not have been possible without the help of our committed tutors from USU. Not only are these individuals tutors to our students, they are mentors who are making a difference in the lives of the students. It has been a busy semester for the Galaxy Club, but we have more to come for the New Year! Please visit our Facebook page at Cache Refugee & Immigrant Connection to view pictures from the Galaxy Club. For more information about Galaxy Club or if you’re interested in volunteering, contact: [email protected]

Photo by Seth Nafziger

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Smile on Your Brother Smile on Your Brother celebrated its 15th annual event in November at the Natural Philosophy and Yoga Studio. Historically, local high students working with Utah State University students have put on this fundraiser. Each year the students involved in Smile on Your Brother decide where the funds from the event will go. Last year and this year it was decided that the money would go to support a teacher in a Burmese refugee camp, along the Thail-Burma border. Students from various schools such as Logan High, Fast Forward High, InTech High, and Mountain Crest came together to make this event happen. The students made cards, choreographed performances, helped set up, and last year they cooked sticky rice. Local businesses were also very supportive of this event including the Natural Philosophy and Yoga Studio, Square One Printing, Crumb Brothers, Einstein Bros Bagels, and Café Ibis. They provided donations and the venue. We had a diverse group of people attend including some of our refugee community. Last year we made $370 and this year we made $514. The money will be delivered directly to a teacher by one of our USU students from Myanmar. Please visit our Facebook page at Cache Refugee & Immigrant Connection and Uncommon Collective to view pictures from Smile on Your Brother.

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Refugee GAP Program at USU The Refugee GAP program pairs a refugee from the community with a USU student to serve as a conversation partner. Pairs meet once a week to talk or participate in an activity. Additionally, all pairs are invited to a monthly group event. Previous events have included ice skating, going to the USU Rodeo, the

Pumpkin Walk, and Diwali. This semester we had six partnerships. Each pair took part in different activities depending on what the refugee wanted to work on. Such activities included studying for the citizenship test, practicing English, visiting the Logan Reindeer Walk, and volunteering. While the primary purpose for the Refugee GAP program is to make college more accessible for refugees in our community by engaging with them in conversational English, mentors find that the learning and benefits reciprocal.

Photo by Seth Nafziger

Photo by Michael Pekarske


CRIC in the News & Out in the World Take a look at some of these links to see how CRIC is getting out there in the news! Thanks to the Herald Journal, which has started posting our meeting topics in its Agenda section, and to reporter Lis Stewart, who always has something good to say.

CRIC walk-in hours featured in Welcoming Refugees’ Collection of Promising Practices http://bit.ly/1wzNeEO

CRIC President Nelda Ault participated in the learning circle that reviewed Welcoming Refugees’ new Reframing Refugees Messaging Toolkit http://bit.ly/1A9R4cF

April 2014 | Presentation about CRIC at the annual meeting of the Western States Folklore Society at USU “At the Crossroads, All Together: Interactions with Underserved Communities” http://www.westernfolklore.org/2014Program.html

CRIC walk-in hours featured in Spring 2014 issue of Liberalis, USU’s magazine for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences http://bit.ly/1A9RAaB

October 23, 2014 | USU Statesman “USU program connects students and local refugees” http://bit.ly/1B3strA

November 6, 2014 | Nelda Ault receives the Cache Interagency Council’s award for individual service http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=54259

November 12, 2014 | Herald Journal “USU students help immigrants, refugees with job applications, naturalization paperwork” http://bit.ly/1u75wzG

December 10, 2014 | EEJ Ed Notes: The official blog of the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services “Student-led clinic helps refugees with jobs and citizenship” http://bit.ly/174vkW9

CRIC’s New Website In August, www.cacherefugees.org went live. Thanks to Joshua Timothy for donating the design work and to Nathan and Chris Hult for the donation that made the domain name and hosting possible.


Community Garden Coming in 2015

Photos by Luz Carreno

After a couple of seasons of false starts, all the pieces are finally in place for a community garden to get up and running. Thanks to the generosity of landowner Russell Ray, garden project coordinator Julie Sheen, and tractor man Dr. Ed Redd, a mostly-prepped-for-springtime garden is currently resting under a blanket of snow.

In the early months of 2015, refugee families and community leaders will start meeting and planning the communal use of this garden plot, located near Logan High School.

Though this property has been gardened recently, the chore list that needs to be completed before spring planting is long. Irrigation considerations, crop planning, tree removal, rock removal, and repair to structures are all being evaluated as part of the project plan. Julie Sheen, a community member who has recently returned to Cache Valley, has volunteered to orchestrate the beginning of this refugee community garden. Julie comes to this project with a degree (MS Ed) in Sustainability Education from Portland State University and years of experience working with The Learning Gardens Laboratory in Portland and The Learning Garden at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR.

We hope to keep you posted on the community garden’s progress at our website, www.cacherefugees.org.


Upcoming Projects

CRIC is looking forward to a year full of new partnerships, projects, and discoveries. Please contact us if you see a place where you see yourself fitting in!

Coming in 2015:

• Starting January 13, 2015, 5-7 p.m. Employment Clinic at First Presbyterian Church (with citizenship preparation, drivers license study group, English conversation practice, and child care provided). Every Tuesday, ends April 28.

• Presentation to management staff of JB Swift Beef Company to promote cultural knowledge about various refugee groups and their experiences.

• Community Garden planning meetings, starting around the end of January, early February.

• Folklore Fieldwork Field School, May 2015, hosted by Special Collections and Archives and the Fife Folklore Archive in the USU Merrill-Cazier Library, and the Folklore Program in the USU Department of English. Students will be trained by folklorists from the Library of Congress to conduct, record, and index ethnographic interviews with local refugees, and hold a community event.

• Utah Refugee Needs Assessment: Employment and Education will wrap up.

• All CRIC board meetings are open to the public. Small board meetings are held every other month, and larger meetings that would be best suited for newly interested community members and organizations with project or partnership ideas occur in the off months, starting in February 2015.

Documents

Jan 2015 cric newsletter