New American Africans Youth Program

New American Africans welcomes our new Acting Director, Deo Mwano.  Resettled in New Hampshire 16 years ago, Deo brings both lived experience as a refugee and a background rich in the work of helping organizations maximize their potential.  He immediately saw the value in having a program that gets newly resettled youth building their English language skills and learning the ‘soft’ skills necessary to succeed in school. 

Almost all younger students lose reading ability over the summer.  This is particularly true for children who are still mastering spoken and written English.  Youth who arrive in the late spring or during the summer do not start school until the fall; too often, they make minimal progress during these valuable months.  To address this problem, NAA created a book group.  Our target audience was youth going into middle school.  Some of the students have been in Concord for almost two years; others are truly new to the community.  We paired up more experienced readers with newcomers.  Together, they read a high interest, low literacy story, Home of the Brave.  The book chronicles the struggles and successes of a 10-year-old Sudanese boy resettled in Minnesota. One of our newcomers, Enoch, who resettled in May, worked closely with Frank who has been here 18 months.  Their heads were constantly together as Frank helped Enoch to understand the world around them.  We are immensely proud of how much English Enoch has learned over the summer, giving him a huge head start when school starts up in late August.

Our first discussion included only new Americans.  We talked through the early sections of the book and discussed some of the more difficult vocabulary.  At our next meeting, we brought in an equal number of host community members. We talked about the book, and considered how comprable it was to the experiences of the newcomers.  Finally, we all went out to have fun together at Monkey Trunks Aerial Adventure Park.  Students mingled across cultures as they encouraged the very newly resettled to try a few words of English,  Every single one of the participants made it all the way to the top of the aerial adventure course!

Our next project will involve pairing a successful new American  middle school student with a younger child who just arrived for a weekly reading session.  This pair will be joined by a volunteer from the host community who is willing play a positive role in the resettlement process.  Ideally, they will spend time having fun as well as reading - kicking a soccer ball, playing a board game or watching a movie. Along the way, the younger studdent will be learning some of the 'invisible' rules that once mastered, gives students a much better chance of success.  Our final book will be One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root.  It is a sweet rythming story about a series of animals, most of which are indigenous to New Hampshire, working together to free a duck stuck in the muck.  As a final adventure for the group, we will travel to Squam Lake Science Center.  There, along a mile long track, they will meet many of the animals in the book, and will get to experience the great fun of a very hands on science center that encourages touch and movement.

Fundamental to making these projects work, while ensuring that the rest of the work of NAA continues, is hiring a youth coordinator who can help us identify the youngsters who will benefit the most from these sorts of programs.  Through both  the generosity of the Global Giving community and grant funding, we are very close to taking this step.  Your gift will bring us closer to to this goal.  A youth coordinator will not only help students to succeed; he or she will also be the liaison between the schools and the  parents, helping them to understand the  enormous complexities of the American public school system.