Head Start and Hispanic Heritage Group at the Columbia MO Celebration of World Refugee Day 2016
languages. This project gives CMCA Head Start children and teachers a broader view of the world, increasing their social, cultural, and linguistic awareness, as well as developing the knowledge of where their pen-pals live.
Linking newly resettled refugees with local Head Start programs can provide many benefits for refugee families. We are now seeing that more refugee families are seeking out our Head Start programs for enrollment opportunities.
CMCA Head Start collaborated with Refugee and Immigration Services Agency to organize and participate in the celebration of World Refugee Day to welcome and support refugees in our community.
In an effort to help and support our families, some of the refugees are also provided with job opportunities to work as interpreters, armed with first-hand experience as to the havoc, needs, and difficulties they have faced in the past, and currently. They also assist us in learning about their culture, traditions, and beliefs. The refugee interpreters put us in a better position to create a wonderful, professional, and friendly relationship with our families of immigrants and refugees. Through this collaboration and mutual understanding, we have been able to learn and identify ways to better communicate and to approach these families with empathy, respect, and to celebrate differences.
It was a great opportunity to meet newly-arrived refugee families in the area and to learn and identify ways to better communicate and approach them with empathy and respect. The event displayed informational booths with resources available in the area. We made fun informational posters about different cultures, and some families helped by bringing different items from their countries, such as traditional clothing, crafts, and pictures. This helped them share a little taste of their culture with the rest of the community. CMCA Interpretive Services invites members of communities, agencies, and organizations to work together to offer opportunities for adaptation to a new culture, integration into the community, obtaining services. Events like this are key to welcoming newcomers since newly arrived refugee and immigrant families are often reluctant to access important services due to many barriers such as limited English proficiency and lack of familiarity with U.S. systems and policies. CMCA Interpretive Services Head Start program has developed strategies to address cultural, linguistic, and other special needs that migrant and refugees’ parents may encounter while they acclimatize to our community. Also, exploring ways to ensure access to our services and programs are available with the translation of documents and the Head Start brochures in 7 different languages (Burmese, Arabic, Tamil, French, Chinese, Spanish, and English). By working with organizations like Refugee and Immigration Services, we have the opportunity to share and learn about some of the cultural backgrounds of refugees, traditions and their belief systems, as well as some of their behaviors and practices particularly around parenting and childcare.
Head Start is my passion. It is a mission. I identify completely with Head Start’s vision “to work diligently for policy and institutional changes that ensure all vulnerable children and families have what they need to succeed.” Looking back, Head Start would have been a life saver for me and my family. I had to fight in a place where I wasn’t sure what the rules of the game were. I was an immigrant and many years later, I have found in Head Start, the solution to many immigrant’s and refugee’s problems, as they become acquainted with their new home and way of life. This passion of mine, of helping people in my community, has become my profession, and now having the opportunity to work as an Interpretive Services Specialist at Central Missouri Community Action Head Start Program, I keep my sights continually set on building bridges of communication and cultural awareness between our diverse families and the Mid-Missouri community. Head Start has given me the opportunity to ensure my family’s, and particularly, my son’s story doesn’t repeat itself. Together, educators, parents, and students can help clear all the obstacles, including the language barrier, and help all our young ELL students make the most of their God-given talents and achieve the American Dream.
Region VII Head Start Sand BoxTM | Summer 2017
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