Refugee Youth Classes  Start  in January

Last year's Refugee Youth Program trainees, pre-pandemic. Back row left to right: Biniam (Ethiopia), Elia (Uganda), Ngabo (Rwanda), Jonas (Ethiopia). Front row left to right: Elisabet (Ethiopia), Appoline (DRCongo), Bertha (Malawi)

We're pleased to announce that classes for our Refugee Youth Job Training Program are on schedule to start in January. We spent the fall adapting the program to a virtual world, and now we're ready to go.

We started the program last year with a cohort of seven young people (see photo above). It was geared toward refugee youth ages 16-24 and combined a weekly job readiness class with practical work experience in our kitchen and farmer's markets. Even after classes went virtual last March, all the youth successfully completed the program, found summer employment or internships, and are now either back in school or working at permanent jobs. With such a successful program under our belt, we were determined not to let the pandemic stop us from running it again this year. 

With the help of several grants and donations from kind supporters, we hired Britta to be our teacher and engaged Maliss (last year's teacher) as a consultant. We've selected eight amazing young people for this year's cohort. And we've had an awesome response to a call for local mentors last week and are planning an orientation for them in January. Classes for the youth start January 5.

The pandemic created organizational challenges that none of us could have anticipated when we piloted the program back in 2019. How do you recruit young people when you can't meet them in person? How do you adapt a curriculum for online learning? How do you make sure everyone has the technology they need to successfully participate from home? We needed extra time to address these questions, but we're finally ready to go and looking forward to a great time. We'll keep you posted on how things progress.

If you'd like to contribute to the youth program, we would be very grateful. You can do so here:

An Interview with Appoline, a Graduate of our Refugee Youth Program 

Appoline: It's about service. Customer service and about respecting each other. And I learned things.

Rebecca: What did you learn?

Appoline: I learned to give people their change in my head. Some trainees used a machine, but I learned to do it by myself. I'm not good at math, but I got used to it and I got faster and faster.

Rebecca: Were you nervous?

Appoline: Yes. I'm on the shy side. I won't like to look people in the eye and was so shy to even talk. But they took me to places, like out to Newport at the farmer's market, and I talked to a lot of people. I talked to people about granola and I got used to it. I had this mindset I was going to change for the better.

In class I learned to make my resume and math. And we memorized the names of the granola and how to set up the table. And we went to the kitchen and packaged the granola. That was with covid, but the kitchen is big and we stayed apart at the big table.

Youth trainees putting labels on bags in our kitchen last spring

Rebecca: The program will start again soon. What advice do you have for the new trainees?

Appoline: Try your best and be patient so when you make mistakes it's okay. Continue to learn because you learn a lot. And there's a lot of older people in charge at the farmer's markets and there's heavy things to carry. So you gotta help them.

Rebecca: You found a summer job after you graduated from our program. What did you do?

Appoline: I worked at the garden [at the South Side Community Land Trust]. It was all about how black and other cultures can make a garden and grow things from their home countries. We grew regular things, but we also grew squash from the Congo - a little squash that you eat raw, I can't remember the name in English. I liked that. 

Rebecca: What are your plans for the future?

Appoline: I want to be a fashion designer and go to Rhode Island School of Design.

We wish Appoline all the best as she pursues her dreams. If you'd like to know more about her, you can read her story here:

Beautiful Day Now Accepting Gifts of Stock. Yay!

Adding stock to your charitable giving portfolio can be a big tax saver. And with capital gains taxes expected to rise in the near future, this might be an especially good time to consider gifts of stock. As a courtesy to those who might benefit from giving in this way, Beautiful Day has opened a brokerage account and can now accept donations of stock. If you're interested, please contact us for transfer information. As you can see from the photo above, we're really happy that we can offer this new service.

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