Women of Cincy / May 20,2019
Darlene Kamine was instrumental in working with Cincinnati Public Schools to develop these community learning centers, which are really hubs of services for students and families, but also the broader community around the school. You really have a holistic picture of education and child and family welfare. [The Community Learning Center Institute] runs this community learning center; the one at our partner school. But really what they were identifying – especially the director of the Welcome Center, Antonio Fernandez, and the school parent coordinator, Carlos Guzman, here at Roberts – was the need for legal services.
Why are immigrant/refugee issues Cincinnati’s issues?
Because they’re families that are part of our communities. They’re in our schools; they’re in our neighborhoods. As I mentioned before, this is not just a border issue; people don’t stay at the border. Not everybody even comes through the southern border. We have so many families here; the estimates are around 30,000 refugee families, and they’ve come in with refugee status. They’ve gone through the immigration process before they come to this country. But they’re here. Their kids are studying with our kids. They’re working. One thing that’s really important to understand is that they’re helping support our community. If you actually look at the numbers, immigrant/refugee families contribute billions of dollars to our system and they take out much less than they contribute. They build businesses. They’re part of our community, just like any of us.
Most people I know don’t go back further than our grandparents. And our grandparents came, and they built lives, and made sure we all got an education. That’s what these families are trying to do. They want to make a better life; their kids are in school, they’re trying to learn English, and they want to be a valuable part of society. And they’re the future. Those kids are here, as much as my child is. They’re part of us.