Hello and Happy New Year!
I am the ECAR coordinator at HVCC. In conjunction with Russell Sage College, Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) is a program through which we host and support a refugee family as they arrive in the area, and then move to longer term housing. As a part of this new program, I work to create educational events and engagement opportunities for our students, staff and faculty, and the broader community. I am putting together an application for an NEA Big Read grant (a community reading program) because it is a great way to support community building and education around refugee resettlement, both on and off campus. As Sage is our partner in ECAR, we are happy to partner with them again on this grant.
I would like to invite you and interested colleagues to meet on Thursday, Jan. 4 at 10 a.m. to discuss and help plan the NEA Big Read Grant.
Please email me (c.willis@hvcc.edu) for the Zoom link to attend the meeting.
(If this time does not work for you and you are interested, then please reach out to me. We can talk another time).
During our meeting I will outline the grant expectations, focusing on the types of activities that we are to plan. Then we can brainstorm, think of the best ways to meet those expectations, and identify folks who might be willing to take the lead on specific activities.
Here is some background information on the grant and our ideas:
- The NEA Big Read supports community reading (writing and creative) programs around a single theme and related book. The goal of this program is to inspire meaningful conversations, celebrate local creativity, elevate a wide variety of voices and perspectives, and build stronger connections in each community.
- Because of our work with refugee resettlement, we have selected: “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir” by Kao Kalia Yang tells the story of her family’s imprisonment in Laos after the war in Vietnam, their harrowing escape into Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, their immigration to Minnesota when Yang was six years old, and their transition to a hard life in America.
- The NEA asks that we pick from among their themes. We have chosen the theme people. This theme is intended for us to celebrate both the people who resettle in our community and the many people who support them in this journey, and how we are all transformed in the process.
- The required elements of the program include: a launch, book discussion workshops, writing workshops, panel or author talk, creative workshop, event that shares voices/experiences publicly.
- We will be building more partnerships for this grant. We are required to work with a public library and I have reached out. We are also interested in working local organizations that support refugee resettlement.
Please let me know if you plan to come!
Thank you!
Catherine