The coronavirus has disrupted society, making simple acts of connection difficult. That made it all the more important for the staff of Hartford Public Library’s The American Place to find a way to overcome that difficulty and continue to serve.
Julie Redding, Hartford Public Library’s Crossroads to Connectivity coordinator, is using her weekly check-ins to strengthen relationships and to make sure that the couple of hundred people served by TAP have what they need to stay on track towards their goals.
“We want to support them when their lives are upside down like everyone else,” Redding said. “It’s a little bit like casework. What can I do to help you?”
The COVID-19 outbreak presents unique challenges to immigrants and mixed-status families who are disproportionately affected by layoffs, suffer from food insecurity, more likely to lose their housing and lack access to technology.
“They are extremely vulnerable. The tools of living can be tricky for them because of their basic communications skills,” Redding said.
Despite the library’s closure, The American Place has continued to provide critical services. They’ve distributed tablets with a built in data service that doesn’t require WiFi, many times personally delivering the equipment to the people in need. They’ve moved free ESOL and citizenship classes online. Immigration attorneys continue to service families already in the citizenship process, in addition to work staff members were already doing conducting surveys and wellness checks.
“I’ve doubled and tripled contacts figuring that they need the support and pointing them towards community resources,” Redding said.
Redding’s Connection to Connectivity program was intended to be supportive, meant to supplement what was going on in classrooms and programs. With the closure of schools and universities, that has changed. “In most cases, the laptop is how they receive their instruction,” Redding said.
In addition, The American Place staff has been training educators to do their own online instruction.
For Homa Naficy, the executive director of The American Place, there was no chance that a virus would stop their good work.
“Many immigrants aspire to become American, as you have greater liberties and vaster opportunities for economic and academic growth than anywhere in the world. They will be able to afford a better life for their children. For many the path to citizenship is an arduous and daunting process. Given the sense of helplessness and fear that all of us are feeling today, if there is any way that we can offer some sense of hope and some form of care to individuals during this pandemic we should. We can all do something for each other, its recognizing what that something is,” Naficy said.
- By Steven Scarpa, Manager, Communications and Public Relations
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