This photo shows our past-chair, Margaret White, our 2019 intern LeAnne Drum, and our part-time social services coordinator Angelica Martinez. Both Margaret and Angelica have been involved with CoFiA for several years and are well-known to the members of the organization. Angelica lives in Palisades Park and is our eyes and ears on the streets of the town, helping us to understand the issues that many immigrants face when trying to make their way in a challenging new environment.
We are happy to report that LeAnne Drum, our summer intern in 2018, returned to work with us part of the summer of 2019. She picked up where she left off the year before, especially focussing on working with the Saturday night group (“delegados“). Unfortunately she was only able to be here until July 23, when she left to study in Chile.
in 2018 LeAnne created an excellent guide highlighting where people new to this country can find local resources, especially those that serve a Spanish-speaking and perhaps undocumented population. We distributed it widely in 2018 and 2019 and it is still available.
We are also delighted to announce the appointment of Alberto Oliart who is picking up LeAnne’s work with the Saturday night group, the delegados. Alberto is a student at William Paterson University, where he studies with CoFiA member Kevin Norton who teaches percussion at the college. Kevin discovered that Alberto, who is from Mexico and is fluent in both Spanish and English, has an interest in organizations like CoFiA that are working to improve the lives of people who have recently immigrated to the United States. He introduced him to us, and we were delighted to find that he was interested in and available for working with us and the delegados. He has made important contributions including organizing a group of delegados who completed the 30-hour OSHA training program.
Alberto and Co-Chair Carolyn