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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 6, 2015)
Page 10 News S tre et R oots » February 6-12, 2015 Anew fresh start Straddling two cultures and vulnerable to gangs, immigrant youths are tapping into a new program with Africa House to keep them above street influences BY ANN-DERRICK CAILLOT ~ S T A F F W R ITE R hen Jacques moved to Portland four years ago from a refugee camp in Burundi, job prospects for his mother were bleak, it was nearing the end under its roof, last year Africa House of the school year, and neither he nor his six implemented a new program to address a brothers and sisters knew a word of English. problem community leaders and parents “I couldn’t understand anything,” Jacques have been aware of for years: youth gang remembers. “They might be saying violence. something, but I don’t know what they’re With a $100,000 grant from the Youth saying. I’d just say, ‘OK, OK.’” Development Council of the Oregon New to the country and with heavy Department of Education, Africa House accents, he and his older siblings became started a pilot program called the African targets of bullying at their new schools and Gang Prevention/Intervention project, in in their neighborhoods. which youths identified by school and “I have been called names. I’ve been community leaders as being at-risk for gang pushed,” says Jacques (whose name has involvement are assigned a mentor who been changed for this story). “I remember attempts to bridge the gap between a my freshman year at Franklin I got into a mentee’s school and home life, and between fight because someone was being racist, the mentee’s home culture and the saying something really bad about my mom. American one they currently find I got really angry.” themselves in. The mentors make What Jacques didn’t realize right away, themselves available to their mentees day however, was that he and his siblings were and night whether it be for help on perfect targets for gangs. Like many schoolwork, outings to events and activities, immigrant youths, they sought a community, or just plain everyday advice. a sense of belonging, and they were looking Jacques was assigned a gang-prevention to help supplement their household’s specific mentor a few months ago at the income, making them attractive to the start of his senior year at David Douglas promises of illicit groups. High School. “If I need help in the week However, four years later, Jacques’ older really bad, I call him and we meet up and he siblings are working their ways through helps m e / says Jacques. “The past couple college. And Jacques, now a high-school months I’ve been meeting up with him a lot senior, is preparing to join them with the to apply to colleges, so he’s been helping help of his mentor provided through the me out with those things.” new African Gang Intervention/Prevention Today Jacques is working to join his older project at the Immigrant and Refugee siblings in college where he hopes to major Community Organization’s Africa House. in architecture and play soccer. The Africa House’s onsite staff of about 20 distractions from his goals are many, but people supports African immigrants and with the pro-social opportunities provided refugees living in Portland with everything by Africa House, such as after-school from rent and energy assistance and programming, special educational talks, translation services to tutoring, mentoring trips on weekends and his personal mentor, and leadership development. Each year Jacques has the room to stay focused. “I like nearly 3,000 people pass through its doors, to go to school, do my work, and come a tenth of the Portland metro area’s total home,” he says. “Because I want to go to African population^ college, and they say you have to have good With dozens of service offerings already grades.” ■ P HO TO COURTESY OF AFRICA HOUSE In addition to acting as role models, the High School student, was gunned down that mentors, who are also African, are liaisons people outside of the African and justice f~ between fiorne and school where language communities began to take notice. That barriers can keep students and parents from same year, the Coalition of Communities of being able to fully engage in the educational Color in partnership with Portland State system. “There have been many cases University, released “The African Immigrant where the kids have to leave school or not and Refugee Community in Multnomah go because their parents need them to »County: An Unsettling Profile,” a report that translate for any appointment,” explains shed a the first light on what African Yetu Dumbia, who along with fellow Africa families face in Portland. According to the report, the majority of African Portlanders House staff member Shani Osman are the who arrived in the U.S. within the last 10 only mentors the program currently has on staff. “Having more of a communication years did so under refugee status. The. between the parents and the teachers and majority of Africans in Portland are Somali, having the parents get more involved in and some are struggling with untreated their children’s education is key.” stress and anxiety disorders, such as PTSD. The African Gang Prevention/ Poverty plagues Portland’s African Intervention project also has a criminal community too. According to the 2014 justice expert on hand to educate families Poverty in Multnomah County report by the on the American criminal justice system and Multnomah County Department of Human provide reentry support for those who have Services, many American employers don’t been arrested and imprisoned. Africa House recognize foreign credentials, so while a staff hope that, with mentors and increased quarter of Africans living in Multnomah understanding of U.S. educational and County have advanced degrees and job justice systems, Portland’s young African experience, African households still bring in immigrants and refugees stay on the path to only half the incomes that white ones do. As higher education and avoid the violence that a result, some young African refugees turn threatens their futures in this country and, to selling drugs with a gang to help support most importantly, their lives. their familes, according to the rep o rt “(Youths) at the poverty level are going to be living in areas that aren’t as enhanced with prosocial opportunities,” says Tom he key to Africa House’s program is its Peavey, policy manager at the Youth cultural specificity. The African Gang Violence Prevention Office. “And when you Prevention/Intervention project was one of don’t have the opportunities that can give four culturally specific gang programs you success then you’re going to have fewer awarded a grant by the YDC. Because while people successful from that environment.” Portland youth gang violence is not a new For all kids, regardless of national origin phenomenon, the particular vulnerability of or ethnicity, the need for belonging is the immigrant and refugee youths to gang main push to join a gang. influence has only recently been explored by “Gang members form a family,” says the city. Antoinette Edwards, director at the Youth It wasn’t until October 2013, when Abukar Madey, a Somali-American Franklin T See FRESH START, page 11
