Fall PHENND Meeting: Immigration

Posted by on September 09, 2013

The Fall PHENND Meeting featuring campus-community partnerships related to immigration and immigrant communities

Wednesday, October 2
9:00AM – 12:00 PM

Arcadia University
Grey Towers Castle, Graduate Dining Room

The Fall PHENND Meeting is a chance for the entire PHENND Network to get together to share ideas, events, difficulties, etc. It is also a time to hear from PHENND staff about their activities and opportunities for partnership.  This year, the theme will be immigration and will feature brief presentations from campus and community partners that work with immigrant communities across the region.

Confirmed speakers include:

• David Chiles, Executive Director, Providence Center
• Patience Lehrman, Director, Project SHINE, Temple University
• Dr. Valerie Ross, Director, Critical Writing Program, Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, University of Pennsylvania

To register, visit: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dERUNUlFZmJ4VUQxbnFfSWlWallkZHc6MA#gid=0

Directions:  http://www.arcadia.edu/admissions/default.aspx?id=577

Campus Map: http://www.arcadia.edu/admissions/default.aspx?id=1565

Public Transportation: http://www.arcadia.edu/admissions/default.aspx?id=577#public

About the Speakers:

David Chiles is the Executive Director of the Providence Center. Providence Center serves the predominantly Latino neighborhood of Fairhill in North Philadelphia, providing educational opportunities to children, youth, and adults. Most of our students are English language learners, and we offer adult ESL classes and technology workshops, leadership and college prep programs for teens, and an after school program that emphasizes social and emotional learning to build resiliency in children. Our area of the city struggles with poverty and crime, and Providence Center provides a neighborhood center that values the dignity of each person, creating a safe and hospitable place for learning.

Patience Lehrman is Program Director of Project SHINE. Project SHINE is a national initiative headquartered at the Temple University Intergenerational Center that builds partnerships between institutions of higher education and immigrant communities. Developed in 1996, SHINE mobilizes university and community college students from diverse ethnic backgrounds to help elderly immigrants and refugees learn the English language skills and civics knowledge they need to become more actively engaged in their communities and prepare for U.S. citizenship. SHINE staff oversees the national SHINE network of 18 colleges/universities in 14 cities and provides training and technical assistance to the SHINE consortium. The program was among 12 model programs selected by the Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement in 2002 as a model program that has demonstrated civic engagement of youths and in 2011, Project SHINE was one of 4 national recipients of the E Pluribus Unum Prize for exceptional immigrant integration.

Valerie Ross oversees the literacy component of TIMBA, an afterschool program that involves Penn students and faculty, and focuses on literacy, technology, and inquiry in a bilingual multicultural setting. TIMBA includes reading and creative and critical writing, STEM programs, and Singapore Math. It is designed for Francophone African immigrants, a growing but mostly “invisible” immigrant community. She will provide some background on the West African children of the diaspora as they attempt to navigate significant cultural differences between their country of origin and the US, particular strengths and vulnerabilities these children bring to athe academic environment, as well as share some of the program’s literacy activities. For more information about TIMBA, visit http://palmssolutions.org/programs-2/timba-2/.