South Bay Craft Fair Committee

Student art at our South Bay Summer Cam Many of our students produce handcrafts, artwork, and other handmade goods, but have difficulty bringing these products to market in the US.  The South Bay Craft Fair Committee aims to support student craft projects, facilitate student expression, develop relevant job skills, and help students sell their crafts in the local community.    According to Karen Cotter, RT Literacy Coach and Chair of the CFC, the CFC needs: "creative people; individuals who know the South Bay craft, art, and/or food scenes; people with business or accounting backgrounds; and those with just a desire to see their student succeed."     Interested? Bring all of your ideas to the the CFC's exploratory meeting Saturday May 11 at 10:00 in RT's South Bay Office (1922 the Alameda, Suite 425, San Jose). This meeting is open to both RT volunteers and students.    To RSVP for this meeting or to express your interest in future meetings, contact Karen Cotter.

Happy National Volunteer Week!

Refugee Transitions annually trains between 250-300 volunteers - and every year we are inspired by our volunteers' level of skill and dedication.  RT started as a volunteer-run agency in the 1980s and retains this focus today.  Unlike volunteers elsewhere, RT volunteers are central to achieving our organization's mission and are on the front lines of our work.  Everyday our volunteers are in site-based classes, after-school programs, and homes teaching English, providing critical services, and helping our community. This makes the RT volunteer experience unique, meaningful, and effective.  Our staff are committed to providing our volunteers with the support they need to change their world. Thanks to all of our volunteers who bring our work to life and empower our students to succeed!  Happy National Volunteer Week from all of us at RT.

This week we will be highlighting some of the fantastic volunteers at Refugee Transitions, so please stay tuned for more! 

Want to join us? We are always looking for dedicated individuals that want to change their world.  Consider submitting an application today:  

A Safe Home For All

SF Program Coordinator Grace Lau standing next to her equality sticker.Our staff want Refugee Transitions to be a safe home for all of our volunteers and students regardless of gender - or any other factor.  Unfortunately, LGBTQ refugees are often a displaced group within the refugee community itself. Many face discrimination throughout the resettlement process. Our staff are conscious of the particular challenges faced by LGBTQ refugees and are committed to making all our students and volunteers feel included, regardless of gender or identity. Thanks to the Organization for Refuge, Asylum, and Migration (ORAM), one of RT's partner agencies addressing the needs of LGBTQ refugees, we are able to continually improve our inclusion policies. Recently, following a training from ORAM, SF Program Coordinator Grace Lau added an equality sticker to her desk to re-assure incoming students that RT is indeed a safe home for all.  

For more on issues facing LGBTQ refugees, please visit ORAM's website.  

Welcoming Brenna

Please join us in welcoming Brenna Marea Powell, Ph.D. to our Board of Directors. Brenna is the Associate Director of the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation as well as the Principal and Chairman at the IPRE Group.  We are looking forward to her expert guidance as we continue to develop and expand our services.  Brenna joins Nabeel Ahmed and Yaacov Silberman as our 2013 board inductees. For more information on our Board, and for full biographies on Brenna, Nabeel, and Yaacov, please visit our Board of Directors Page.        

As we grow our services, RT is looking for a few more highly-qualified and interested candidates to join our Board of Directors.  Have someone in mind? Let us know.  
 

"I am very, very happy!”

Kristen Law (center-left, kneeling) with her ESL/citizenship class, overlooking Golden Gate Bridge.With the help of rings in the tree stump, students receive an American civics and history lesson in the woods!

Refugee Transitions' teachers and Literacy Coaches never fail to amaze our staff!  This month, Kristen Law arranged a trip to the Marin Headlands and Muir Woods for Karen students in her ESL/citizenship class. They had an enjoyable day with beautiful weather, a picnic lunch, and even a civics education opportunity in the woods (Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas and the signing of the Declaration of Independence were both marked in the rings of a giant tree stump!).  Kristen was able to use the Park Ranger activity books for "outside-the-box" ESL lessons in Muir Woods.  Kristen writes:  

My students are my stars – they keep me motivated.  None of the students had been to either location, so it was a lot of fun for them.  At the end of the day I asked Win Say (a student from Burma), if he had fun and he said, “When I go to bed tonight, I am very, very happy!”  That made my day. 

Kristen and her students are just some of the stars at Refugee Transitions.  We thank her and all of those that made this special event possible, especially the carpool drivers!