March Newsletter 2022

March

Palestinian American Community Center

March Newsletter #SupportTheMission

2022

March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

If you like anything we are doing, please donate at paccusa.org/donate Every dollar helps keep us going!

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March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

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Programs Arabic

Dabka

English Conversation Science

Tatreez

Basketball Computer Class

Soccer Citizenship

Arabic Storytime Homework Help

This month we concluded all our winter programs! We are very proud of our Arabic and Dabka program students who performed at our PACC Day event and look forward to restarting our programs in the spring!

Check out our spring program booklet and register for our spring programs HERE!

March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

Palestine Education Programs Both our Holding onto Palestinian Existence and Freedom is the Future courses ended this month! After meeting weekly via Zoom, students from both classes gained an enriched understanding of the Palestinian struggle, history, cultural traditions and greater solidarity movements. We ended both classes with conversations about how to stay active after the course and continue advocating for Palestinian liberation in the long run!

Events Workshop Wednesday For our workshop this month, we hosted Omari Frazier from Chase bank to discuss money management and how to invest for your future. Our community members were able to learn the importance of SMART goals to set realistic financial targets. The discussion was live streamed on Facebook and YouTube with 178 total views.

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March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

How to Raise your Kids - Parent Workshop Series Throughout the month, we hosted three How to Raise Your Kids workshops for parents with Hajar Mashni. Parents were provided with methods to better understand their children’s well-being, how to communicate and create boundaries. We had 25 people attend in-person and 12 people online via Zoom.

Game Night Our game night this month was for 12- to 18- year- olds. We had 27 teenagers attend and enjoy loads of fun playing board games and other activities!

Arabic Sunday Series We held our Sunday Series on a Tuesday this month! We hosted Sami Abu Shehadeh in person for a conversation about systemic discrimination and racism that Palestinians experienced in 1948 as they fought to preserve their identity. A total of 65 people attended for an engaging lecture and question and answer session.

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March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

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Blood Drive We were honored to host another blood drive this month at our center in collaboration with the American Red Cross. We had a turnout of 24 donors, equaling 25 pints that saved 75 lives. Such donations are much appreciated during these trying times.

PACC Day We hosted our 4th bi-annual PACC day which signified our largest indoor event since the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic. This was especially momentous because our last PACC day in 2020 took place right before the world shut down. PACC Day 2022 was the most well-attended PACC day to date with over 1,200 people present and a sold out show.

We had 3 dabka performances from our advanced dabka students, a song by our Arabic students, 3 poetry readings from contributors to our Falastin magazine, a fourperson musical ensemble that featured the piano, flute and violin, a game of family feud, musical performances, giveaways, a fully equipped kids zone and more. Check out all our performers and sponsors HERE. It was a night to remember and we thank our community and sponsors for making it the successful and fun night it was! Check out the pictures from PACC day HERE.

March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

PACC Conference

Our 3rd Annual conference took place this month and was titled Until Freedom: Reclamation, Resistance, Resilience. We had 4 days of engaging and enriching conversations that taught us about the importance of holding onto our Palestinian history and heritage, the significance of relationship building when working in solidarity with communities in similar struggles, and the beauty of centering Palestinian voices both on the ground and in the diaspora.

We had over 150 people registered for the conference who got to hear from amazing scholars, activists, and community members who have dedicated their work and passion towards Palestine.

Check out all our speakers in our full conference booklet HERE. Thank you to everyone who joined us, your discussion has us already in the works of thinking of next year’s topic!

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Feburary 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

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Women’s Brunch This month’s women’s brunch focused on physical and mental health. We had 17 women attend and engage in meaningful conversations to strengthen their well-being.

Marketing

women’s History Month

To honor the broader resilience, courage, and strength of Palestinian women, PACC shared the stories and achievements of 10 Palestinian women in our local community.

Women have been at the heart of the Palestinian liberation struggle throughout our history. They have served the cause of Palestine in so many unique ways, resisting the occupation of their land and minds with art, writing, knowledge, political struggles, labor, and love. We hope the stories we shared throughout the month filled you with pride and inspiration.

March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

PACC Store Inspired by our conference theme, we officially launched our online store and added new PACC merchandise. Our store now features our ‘Until Freedom’ clothing line which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs and tote bags. This line was designed by our very own graphic designer, Fadia Alagha.

We also created and launched our Palestine Way t-shirt design, which was inspired by the final approval to rename part of Main Street in Paterson to ‘Palestine Way’.

CHECK IT OUT HERE.

Social Services Ramadan Food Boxes

In collaboration with ICNA Relief USA, PACC was able to serve as a distribution center for families in our community that are in need of essential items ahead of Ramadan.

200 families received a bag with food items for nourishing Ramadan meals.

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March 2022

Palestinian American Community Center

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Community Engagement Civic Engagement

Given all the upcoming local and congressional elections, we re-launched our Voter Registration and Get out the Vote Team of 10 interns to make sure our community is aware of all the elections and is registered to vote! We started phone banking and handing out pledge cards. If you know anyone who needs help registering to vote or has questions about the process, send them our way!

COVID Vaccination Clinic

In partnership with Passaic County Department of Health, PACC hosted a vaccination clinic to encourage people to take their first, second or booster vaccine shot.

Community Service Award

Coordinated by the first Palestinian American Board of Education Commissioner in Clifton, Fahim Abedrabbo, the “Muslims in Service” of the Year Awards was introduced for the first time at this year’s annual Fanous Lighting in Clifton with the goal of honoring Muslim community leaders for their services. Our very own Executive Director, Rania Mustafa, was presented with the Community Service Award!

Renaming Main Street Palestine Way On March 29, 2022 the Paterson City Council voted on a bill introduced by the first Palestinian American City Councilman, Alaa Abdelaziz, to rename the area of Main Street between Buffalo Ave and Gould Ave in Paterson to Palestine Way. This is a historic win for our community and we thank all of our community members who were present to commemorate the moment.

March

Palestinian American Community Center

PACC_USA

2022