RISE-ing Voices

My name is Julie Robinson and I have a Master’s degree from UCLA in History. I am the Refugee and Immigrant Services and Empowerment, or RISE, Outreach Manager for the Kansas City Public Library. I have been here since the program began in 2014. We at the library realized that there were people missing from our space, and then we realized who it was through surveys: refugees and immigrants. In the beginning, I primarily worked with Spanish speakers since I understood some Spanish, but there are many different languages that would need to be learned to communicate with all the different refugees in the area. We now primarily work in English.

I didn’t know much about refugees before starting this program, but I wanted to learn more so I began reading articles about immigrants. I also joined the AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer service where I learned how to make positive changes in my community. We finally got a grant and then we began teaching classes in English to help people prepare for the citizenship test and we also held naturalization ceremonies. We have held naturalization ceremonies for between 800 and 1,000 people. We have a lot of people, such as Somalis, who have been here for a long time and can speak English, but cannot read or write in English. But for your citizenship test, you must be able to read and write in English, so that has been a big push for us. We have had people who pass every part of the test aside from the written portion. If that’s the case, we spend a significant amount of time one-on-one with them. If possible, we have a teacher who is fluent in their native language to work with them. We were once working with a man named Roberto who had passed every part of the test aside from the written portion. Once he spent time working with a Spanish-speaking teacher and she could effectively explain the difference between too and two and their, there, and they’re in Spanish to him, it all clicked for him. He passed the citizenship test the following day. I have people, such as Roberto, who call me with such excitement when they pass their citizenship class.

We also teach financial literacy courses, about how to file for taxes, how to set up a bank account, how to responsibly take out loans and get a credit card, as well as how to best pay those debts back. With time, we added more English classes that focused on the basics, such as the alphabet and grammar rules. One of my favorite memories from our classes was when the kids of a Burmese family printed their parents’ names, rather than marking X, for the first time after only four weeks of classes. Another class we provide is preparation for the written exam for a driver’s license. In this area, we have a lot of people driving on the roads without a license, insurance, etc. With the help of additional funding, we hope to expand the program and collaborate with a local driving school for people to gain hours driving on roads. We also opened the driving classes to natives over the age of 14 since we wanted to impact as many people as possible. My first three students were young teenagers.

The majority of people in our English classes for the citizenship test are Spanish speakers, but we also have lots of people from African countries, or Russia, Ukraine, and Moldova as well. When we had people from Russia and Ukraine in class, I feared we may have some issues in class considering the current war context. But by the end of class, they were exchanging phone numbers. Small groups of people can collectively make big changes in the whole world.

I once had a woman who had an interpreter in one of my classes who was 58 and I was telling her about my summer readings. Her interpreter told me that the woman wanted me to know she was never educated, and couldn’t read or write, but she wanted to ask if she still could do summer readings. It was hard to not immediately cry.

I once heard the word cooperation come from a two-year-old’s vocabulary, and when I asked the kid where she learned that word, she said Sesame Street. I then realized that Sesame Street doesn’t use contractions. Then, I knew that if a two-year-old could learn English that quickly from a TV show, then a woman in her late 50s who wants to begin her language-learning process could too. Now, I give Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers videos to anyone who wants to start learning English. She was an impetus for me to get this class started.

We started a Conversation Club, primarily for moms who would drop their kids off at Headstart. Through the club, we found out that many of these moms had been working all night and had come home with just enough time to pick up their kids and turn around to drop their kids off at school. We occasionally got donations from Starbucks for food and coffee, but we would always have a hot pot, tea, coffee, or snacks with plenty for people to take for their family members at home.

In Kansas City, we have a lot of diversity and everybody who comes has a different culture. We have had lots of Asian and Italian restaurants set up by refugees and immigrants, but we are seeing more African and Hispanic restaurants pop up. One of the things we do is if a refugee or immigrant opens a business in the area, we send out that message. My staff and I try to be there so that we can support them. We are on the edge of becoming a certified Welcoming City, but one of the things that is missing is language access in government. There need to be more interpreters in the town around for people to ask questions and find help.

I think more libraries need to have RISE programs.

That’s a big problem. Refugees have had very difficult lives in particular, and there’s a lot of trauma. Being able to handle that is part of my and my co-worker’s job description. It requires us to be kind to the people who come in or are struggling and to try to both understand what people are asking of us and also in turn help them. It just takes kindness, empathy, and a smile to take that step to help people.