On any given weekday, no matter the month, the CHCCS International Welcome Center at Lincoln Center can be bursting at the seams with activity. Housed in a trailer with a brightly colored sign, the Center opened as a stand alone facility in 2015, one of the only of its kind in North Carolina. Families who have just arrived in the U.S., as well as those whose first visit to the Center was a couple of years ago, might be speaking to one staff person in Spanish, another family speaking in Karen, and another may be waiting patiently for an interpreter in a different language. For some newcomers, it’s not too much of an exaggeration to call the Center a lifeline and the starting point for their journeys into brand new lives.
“They leave this office with some hope,” said Zulma Urena, EL Student Success Advocate. “We can’t change all their lives. But maybe one a week, one a day,” she added with a smile.
On the Center’s website pages, the messages are in Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Burmese, Karen, Korean, Arabic and Swahili, a dramatic shift for a school district that had relatively few English language learners even 20 years ago. Also on the Center’s website is a nine minute orientation video in numerous languages, covering the most basic aspects of orientation to our schools: attendance, transportation, nutrition, inclement weather, etc. Currently, there are nearly 60 home languages identified among CHCCS families.
The most basic mission of the Center is to fulfill the requirements for registration and assessment of new students whose dominant language is other than English. These students must ta
ke the N.C. state-designated English Language Proficiency assessment, as well as a math test, while families meet simultaneously with Zaida Walker, the ESL Parent Liaison to complete a language survey and listen to a general overview of CHCCS. Although many assessments are scheduled by appointment, throughout the day other newcomers find their way to the Center by word of mouth, or they stop by when they see the multi-language sign on the trailer, so the flow of people can be nonstop for hours.
Before the Welcome Center existed, most new ESL students started at their base schools before their assessments took place. Helen Atkins, the district’s ESL Coordinator, said that when she came on board in October 2014, many ESL teachers had not yet begun teaching their students because they were still testing. “I knew that we had to help teachers so that they could spend their time instructing instead of testing.”
Atkins and the rest of the staff at the Center rarely hide their passion and commitment to our new international families; their love for this work is evident immediately. They understand the depth of support they offer to adults and children who feel vulnerable and confused. Zulma Urena said, “It’s hard to believe that a person you haven’t met before can trust you so quickly.” She described the experience of home visits with families who rarely unlock their doors. “But they see our staff, our faces, and they open the doors, the windows, and they’re happy to share the food that’s on the table.”
A brand new feature from the Center, launched this month, is a hotline that directs callers to leave messages for interpreters in Spanish, Karen, Arabic and five other languages. The challenges tied to giving and receiving information for non-English speaking families are often enormous...and stressful. Hundreds of CHCCS families have no direct access to internet, and some have no personal phones, so the impediments to navigating an unfamiliar and mysterious school system are compounded in many ways. Communications that come from Lincoln Center, the home school or the classroom teacher might all be impenetrable, and the quick clicking most adults and children do on their computers to find information, from calendars to transportation to PowerSchool, is not a part of these families’ capabilities. For the rest of the district, these limitations are often off the radar, yet the team at the Welcome Center immerse themselves in outreach and problem-solving, in order to ease these transitions.
Often the first point of contact at the Center is Ya Day Moo, the administrative assistant, bookkeeper, scheduler of interpretation and translation services - and “Jill-of-all-trades.” Her demeanor is unfailingly calm and warm, but her emotion is notable when she describes how powerful she finds this work, and how blessed she feels to have landed at the Center. In 2007, Ya Day arrived with her family from Southeast Asia to the U.S.; none of them spoke English. They settled in Georgia, and though they had few of the resources available that our CHCCS newcomers find, Ya Day was able to complete high school and then attain a business degree from a community college, first in ESL, then in regular classes. Working at the Center is her first official job, and yet she is the adept and confident heart of the information flow.
Besides greeting people at the front desk, Ya Day answers the phone and acts as air traffic controller as she matches visitors with other staff or outside resources. She organizes most of the interpretations and translations provided by the Center. In 2014-15, more than 4,000 requests were filled; last year the number climbed to more than 6,300. So far this school year, they have already received 1,500 requests, in languages ranging from Rohingya to Swedish. In September alone, they handled more than 450 requests for Spanish language assistance.
Contracted interpreters will function as the support spokes for the newcomer hotline, but traditionally their roles cover many in-person functions, from accompanying Center staff on home visits, to assistance with food stamp applications, making appointments with health agencies and IEP meetings at schools. Currently the Center contracts with 26 interpreters, but the need is higher. The Center also makes sure that there is interpreters’ equipment in Spanish and Karen at district and school functions.
There are 612 newcomer families currently on the roster this year. But many families who first met Ya Day Moo or Zaida Walker, EL Family Support Specialist, months ago, still call and drop by with questions, fears, or simply to say hello. Not all of these newcomer families are refugees, but many are, and the entire staff at the Center embraces the research that learning, especially among young people, happens most effectively when their social, physical and emotional needs are addressed. The students themselves may adapt to their schools quickly, while parents remain apprehensive and isolated much longer. Taking a holistic approach to meeting a family’s needs means recognizing how much students’ academic success is tied to their parents’ and other family members’ overall mental health. Teens from immigrant families might miss school to accompany parents to medical or legal appointments, so the more the families recognize available resources, the fewer days their high school children will miss as interpreters and guides.
In the past two years, hundreds of newcomer parents have responded to surveys created by the Center, and more than 80% of them have rated the services with 5’s-- “extremely satisfied.” In the comment boxes, parents have written, “The staff answered ALL my questions and concerns amazingly,” and “We are so glad to live in such a supportive community.”
From a single trailer packed with supplies and printed resources - and a small team of staff members sharing space - an abundance of positive outcomes unfold, day in and day out.
Welcome!
