Hi there,
The end of the year is coming and at NMIC we have much to celebrate and be grateful for. First, we fixed a technical issue that was causing our emails to go to spam, so if you signed up for our newsletter and hadn’t heard from us until today–welcome! Also,
- We celebrated our 40th anniversary by raising a whopping $115,000,
- NMIC was in the news with PIX11’s Monica Morales and Assemblymember Carmen De La Rosa,
- In commemoration of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we inaugurated a new memorial garden in front of our building, and other End-of-Year updates.
NMIC’s Benefit raised $115,000 for critical services
Earlier this month, NMIC celebrated its 40 years of service with a benefit celebrating our inspiring honorees, clients, board, staff, and sponsors. Thanks to the support of our generous community, we raised over $115,000, which we will invest in our innovative services for the 14,000 clients we serve annually.
Salomon Severin is one of those clients and we were pleased to present him with the Inspiring Hope Award. When he came to us, he was living in a group home. After four years of hard work, Salomon received his High School Equivalency diploma and is now living independently and awaiting the spring to begin college. During his acceptance speech Salomon said, “With shared effort, we all can be great and learn something new. I want to thank everyone at NMIC for believing in me and encouraging me to pursue my passion and my dreams. It was a shared effort. They did a terrific job of helping me out when I was struggling. I could [always] turn to them for guidance. I hope that this encourages other students to believe in themselves and pursue their diplomas and dreams. You just got to go get it. You have to give back to your community and encourage people to pursue their dreams.”
You can watch the video we played during the event by clicking the image above.
PIX 11 visits NMIC to learn about our free classes
Monica Morales, of PIX 11, came by NMIC earlier this month and filmed a segment on our tenants’ rights workshops and ESOL classes, which empower our community members to speak out and advocate for themselves. Monica visited one of these classes to speak to our students along with our Executive Director, Maria Lizardo, and Assemblymember, Carmen De La Rosa. Here, she learned how hard it can be for tenants to preserve their housing rights and how important NMIC’s range of classes is to empower tenants to do just that. Tenants’ rights workshops educate community members about the rights they have as tenants while ESOL classes help them learn the English they need to better advocate with their landlords to leverage those rights.
If anyone you know needs ESOL or High School Equivalency classes, our next cycle begins in January. For more information, call 212-822-8314 to schedule an intake appointment. You can attend any of our free bilingual tenants’ rights workshops on the first Wednesday of every month. The next one will be held on November 6th, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM at our offices at 45 Wadsworth Avenue (175th Street) on the first floor. Mark your calendars and we hope to see you there!
A Garden of Hope
Yajaira Parra was only 24 when her husband killed her in 2004. She was a mother to a four-year-old child. After immigrating to New York from the Dominican Republic, Yajaira was working and sending money back to support her family, including a paralyzed sister.
Through a generous grant from the City Gardens Club of NYC, NMIC is pleased to announce the inauguration of a memorial garden in front of our building. We dedicated it to Yajaira, along with all victims and survivors of domestic violence, and it has been tended to and nurtured by a group of survivors. Together, we hope it can serve as a visual reminder to raise awareness and as an outlet for healing by reconnecting us to nature in an urban landscape.
At NMIC, every month is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We will continue to provide counseling, legal support, and holistic services for survivors throughout the year. Will you?
2019 is coming to a close
The weather is getting cooler and the holidays are around the corner. As you prepare to celebrate with family and friends, we ask that you think of our clients. Many of them are immigrants facing holidays marred by separation from their families, some are victims of domestic violence, and others are grappling with housing issues.
Your end-of-year contributions are tax-deductible and also have real-life impacts on our community. This year we served over 14,000 clients. More than 1,000 students were enrolled in classes and trainings that put them on paths to secure, sustainable, and prosperous futures. We stopped over 1,300 evictions, including one that threatened to put a 91-year-old immigrant on the streets. Every day, the world grows more hostile for the communities we serve. You can help us fight for our clients by becoming a catalyst for positive change. Become a monthly donor; encourage family members and loved ones to do so, too.
Yours in Solidarity,
NMIC
