Akua Forkuo-Sekyere
Director, New American Welcome Center
“When I think of bridge building at the Y, I think of opportunities to center joy. Joy is a key piece of collaboration work and community building. The NAWC facilitates and is a part of a number of bridge building efforts as it applies to making sure immigrants in our community feel seen and included. At a recent Community Navigator celebration, the diversity of cultures could be heard as each represented culture put a song on the loudspeaker and led a dance. Each dance was quickly joined by nearly all attendees. Providing social services is not easy because we are continuously navigating barriers that impact day-to-day life. In order to keep moving forward in doing this work, we need to pause, be in good company, and celebrate.”
This project was made possible by a grant funded by Team Up, a national collaboration between Catholic Charities USA, Habitat for Humanity International, YMCA of the USA, and Interfaith America.
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