June newsletter Greetings from Rian! Irish for Pride group marches in Boston’s Pride Parade for the first time in 3 years After a 3-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Rian Immigrant Center, in partnership with the Consulate General of Ireland Boston, were delighted to bring a group together to march once again in this year’s Pride parade under the banner ‘Irish for Pride. On Saturday, June 10, a group of enthusiastic Irish and Irish American marchers of all ages gathered to walk in the parade. The group donned customized commemorative bright green Irish for Pride t-shirts, and walked behind a colorful Irish for Pride banner. Our group joined the 10,000 other people from 200 groups who marched in the parade that day! The weather was perfect, and the atmosphere was amazing as we walked the parade route from Copley Square to Boston Common, waving our Irish and Pride flags. The streets were lined with record crowds cheering everyone on. There was a real sense of community, and the fresh focus on social justice and inclusion this year really contributed to this. And the celebrations didn’t stop there. We hosted an ‘Irish for Pride’ booth at the festival in Boston Common, and there was a continuous stream of people visiting us throughout the day from noon to 6:00 pm. Rian would like to thank everyone who showed up to march and who visited our booth at the festival. Thank you also to the Irish Consulate here in Boston for their continued support and partnership. We could not organize an event like this without their support, and we are extremely grateful. Resource and Support Services Support Groups The Resource and Support Services (RSS) team has been thrilled to be working with a new Rian volunteer, Yezmin Name. Yezmin is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor from Mexico City who joined the team in April as a volunteer co-facilitator for our weekly Spanish-Speaking women’s support group. She brings over ten years of bicultural and bilingual clinical experience, including working as a therapist in private practice in Mexico City, providing counseling and advocacy services to immigrants and refugees in San Antonio, Texas with Catholic Charities, and working as a Bilingual Clinician with youth in an immigrants and refugees shelter. Yezmin currently works as a Personal Advocate/Case Manager with the Asperger Autism Network in Watertown, where she helps to fill the gap in bilingual support for adults with autism. Yezmin’s bicultural clinical expertise, warm and empathetic approach, and strong understanding of the socioeconomic conditions affecting our clients are huge assets to RSS’ group work. We are so grateful to her for generously giving her time to our program. She'll be with us through the end of this group session in mid-June and plans to return when the team re-launches the group in September. Stay tuned for more news from RSS on updates about our social support programming! Learning Exchange Program | Making Connections Jude Clarke, our Senior Manager of LEP in Ireland, has been traveling across Ireland and Northern Ireland this past month to connect with university students as they approach their graduations to share about the J-1 visa opportunity and the chance to build their career and have a cultural exchange experience in the U.S. for 12 months. He has been at Queen’s University Belfast, the GradIreland fair, and more! We hosted a cohort of 30 young people from Queen’s University Belfast in our office in Boston on June 6, 2023, as part of their time in the U.S. on the Future Ready Skills for Leaders programme, as they explore the question - “How might Queen's ensure our graduates are equipped to tackle 21st Century problems”? It has been wonderful to connect more in person with our J-1s in Boston! In the past few months, we have attended the Women’s Night Boston Red Sox game, multiple Boston University sports games, a networking event in the center, and much more! Read our most recent Boston Irish article, sharing about Orla McCarthy’s experience on her J-1 visa in Boston!   Education Services | Pursuing Partnerships The Education and Career Services Department is pursuing a partnership with Boston University School of Social Work (BU SSW) with the specific purpose of collaborating on field research to explore the causes and consequences of the ‘big shift’ in the labor force participation of low-wage workers (lw-w). The study is primarily focusing on women of color (WoC), a group that is often marginalized and excluded from decision making structures. The collaborative approach to this project will highlight the role of community engaged research in producing knowledge that can be used to inform transformative legislation; policies, informed by the lived experiences of l-w workers. The knowledge produced will also be used to guide the rebuilding of a more inclusive, equitable, humane, and responsive workforce for both workers and employers. Moreover, by revealing critical intervention points for lw-w WoC and their employers as they navigate the new reality of the labor force; this work has the potential to guide practice decisions of agencies working with lw-w. We are also pursuing a partnership with Boston University Wheelock. The purpose of this partnership is to combine the efforts of BU Wheelock and the Rian Immigrant Center to improve class instruction and student learning; among both Rian’s ESOL students and BU’s graduate students. M.Ed. TESOL and Applied Linguistics students at BU Wheelock will receive a placement for class observation within Rian’s remote ESOL classes in the Fall semester. Come the Spring semester, BU Wheelock graduates will be working with the Education Services Department to provide in class instructional support as teaching assistants. BU Wheelock students may also provide additional instructional support by hosting ESOL Conversation groups or training seminars for students and clients. Finally, the Education and Career Services Department established a partnership with DREAM Venture Labs. DREAM Venture Labs is a non-profit that offers one-on-one coaching to immigrants and refugees who want to start or expand their businesses. The organization's team is made up of current BU students, recent graduates, and professors dedicated to helping immigrants and refugees achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. Maria Gorskikh, who founded the non-profit as an undergrad at BU and is now the full-time Executive Director, recently visited our Level 3 ESOL classes to advertise this opportunity. We are excited to refer our students to DREAM Venture and look forward to continuing our partnership with Maria! Immigration Legal Services | Expanding In-Person Services ILS has had a busy quarter, with some exciting new developments! In March 2023, we welcomed two new staff attorneys, Rachel Benedict and Liliana (Lili) Mamani. Rachel has extensive experience in immigration law and ran her own law office, and Lili comes to us from Dove Inc., where she focused her practice on assisting victims of domestic violence with immigration cases. We are truly excited to have both new attorneys on board, and to be able to expand our capacity! ILS is beginning to expand its in-person services on a few different fronts. We have expanded our in-person clinic at Rosie’s Place to include in-person services twice per month in order to better serve clients’ needs. In addition, we are piloting a new in-person legal clinic at the Roslindale Public Library once a month, and may expand that in-person clinic model to other public libraries in the Boston Public Library system in the future. Finally, we are happy to announce that we are collaborating more closely with the Irish Pastoral Centre to provide in-person and remote consultations for those who request them. Rian’s ILS and RSS Irish Outreach team collaborated with the Irish Pastoral Centre (IPC) and the Consulate General of Ireland Boston on a special event to educate the community about what they can do to prepare for the rollout of the driver’s license bill in Massachusetts. This bill will take effect beginning July 1, 2023. Susan Roses, Director of Legal Programs, led an informative presentation in person at the IPC in Dorchester. Following her presentation, Sue was joined by Immigration Attorneys Chris Lavery and Maura Kelly, and the floor was opened up for questions from all in attendance. From the approximately 30 people there, there were many different questions asked and concerns expressed, which Sue, Maura, and Chris answered as best they could, given that things are ever changing and being updated. The info session led to requests for individual consultations, which IPC and Rian attorneys plan to share. We look forward to ongoing collaborations with the IPC and the Irish Consulate.    Have a safe & happy long weekend! Follow us on social media to get more news from us: Make a donation   Rian Immigrant Center | 1 State Street, Boston, MA 02109 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!