Nashville.gov sent this bulletin at 09/26/2014 03:10 PM CDT
Sept. 2014 | Issue Four
Mayor Dean Launches the Mayor's Office of New Americans
Mayor Karl Dean on Monday signed an executive order to create the Mayor's Office of New Americans, a new Metro Government office focused on engaging and empowering Nashville's immigrants and refugees.
"Nashville is a vibrant community that is home to people from all over the world, and embracing our growing diversity only makes our city stronger," Mayor Dean said. "The new Mayor's Office of New Americans demonstrates that Metro Government is committed to making it easier for immigrants to adapt to living in our community and to be successful here in Nashville."
Shanna Hughey, who has served as Senior Advisor on the mayor's
staff, will lead the Mayor's Office of New Americans, and the Mayor's New
Americans Advisory Council will serve as advisors. The office will focus on
four primary objectives:
Engaging and empowering immigrants
to participate in their local government and in their communities;
Fostering a knowledgeable, safe and
connected community;
Expanding economic and educational
opportunities for New Americans to the benefit of all Nashvillians; and
Working with community organizations
and other Metro departments to empower and support New Americans.
For more
information, visit the Office's website and follow
@MONA_Nashville on Twitter.
You're Invited: Mayor’s Office of New Americans Community
Discussion
Please join Mayor Karl Dean and community leaders for a
special lunchtime panel discussion and community conversation about why we
should—and how we can—work together to welcome, engage and empower Nashville’s
growing New American population.
This event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 12:00pm on Thursday, October 2 in the Sonny West Conference Room of the Howard Office Building, located in Nashville at 700 Second Avenue South. A light lunch will be provided.
Mayor Dean will open the event.
Frank Daniels, Metro Columnist for TheTennessean,
will moderate.
Panelists include:
Ralph Schulz,
President and CEO of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
Francis Guess,
Former Commissioner on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Tennessee
Commission on Human Rights
Renata Soto,
Cofounder and Executive Director of Conexion Americas
Mohamed-Shukri Hassan, Member of the Mayor’s New Americans Advisory Council
Stephanie Teatro, Interim Co-Director of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights
Coalition
Shanna Hughey,
Director of the Mayor’s Office of New Americans
Last Call: Apply Now to be the Mayor's New Americans Fellow
The Mayor's Office of New Americans is hiring its first fellow! The New Americans Fellow will work closely with senior Mayor’s Office staff to conduct community outreach and to plan and administer the Office's New American's programs.
A successful candidate will be a self-motivated leader who has excellent writing skills and a demonstrated interest in issues related to New Americans. This unpaid position is open to candidates of all educational levels.
To apply to be the New Americans Fellow, please send a resume, a cover letter and a brief writing sample to newamericans@nashville.gov. The application deadline is September 29, 2014.
Mayor, Metro Schools Offer Parent Ambassadors Program to Better Serve New American Families
Earlier this month, Mayor Karl Dean joined with Metro Schools to announce the new Parent Ambassadors program, which serves as a bridge between Metro Schools and Nashville's New American community. As part of the program, 20 volunteer Parent Ambassadors have been trained and paired with New American families new to Nashville schools who are from their same home country and/or speak their same native language.
The Parent Ambassadors provide families with information and guidance on navigating the school system. They also serve as advisors to Metro Schools, assisting school leaders on policies and practices that ease the transition into schools for new families and their students.
Parent Ambassadors is a collaborative effort between the Office of Mayor Karl Dean and Metro Schools' Office of Family and Community Partnerships and Office of English Learners, and it grew, in part, out of Mayor Dean's New Americans Advisory Council.
Parent leaders serving in the inaugural group of Parent Ambassadors come from 10 different countries and speak 9 different languages. The countries they represent include Burma, Congo, Egypt, Iraq, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Somalia and Sudan.
11,049 students in Metro Schools--about 13 percent of the total student population--are enrolled in the English Learner program. They speak a total of 110 unique languages.
To volunteer to serve as a Parent Ambassador, contact Gini Pupo-Walker, Executive Director of the Metro Schools Department of Family and Community Partnerships Office, at Virginia.Pupo-Walker@mnps.org.
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