PholM by Era Mieelk fat the Winuoo-Silera Chromck
Aparna Shivram speaks about her experiences as an immigrant in Winston
Salem during the public immigration meeting on Thursday, April 30,2015, at
Goodwill Industries.
Immigrants
from page Al
Spanish speakers.
Using U.S. Census
Data from 2008-2012, they
found the majority of for
eign-born residents in
Forsyth County, 69 per
cent, come from Latin
America, with Asia coming
in second at 18 percent.
Most local foreign-born
residents, 78 percent, are
not U.S. citizens.
Foreign-born residents
often live in communities
m the city whose popula
tions are equal parts white,
Hispanic and African
American. Residents in
these areas tend to have
lower incomes and are less
likely to own their homes
and have college degrees.
BIC also surveyed 20
groups that serve immi
grant populations along
with 211 foreign-born resi
A ~ ?
UCI115
who
came
from
2 3
coun
tries
?and
Puerto
Rico.
They
found
numerous main issues that
Gill said where common
among foreign-bom resi
dents around the state, like
language barriers, trans
portation issues, discrimi
nation and problems with
identification and docu
mentation.
The attendees' groups,
which included several
groups for those more com
fortable speaking Spanish,
came up with lists of spe
cific local issues that filled
the giant sheets of paper
that group leaders wrote
on. The group White led in
Spanish listed workplace
discrimination among its
issues, with attendees feel
ing that they were paid less
than U.S. natives and were
afraid to speak out on their
working conditions for fear
of being fired.
Taylor
David Sisk, member of the Building Integrated
Communities Committee and Director of ESL with
Winston-SalemlForsyth County Schools, leads a
group discussion during the public meeting for
immigrants on Thursday, April 30.
Other issues included
the need for greater access
to public transportation, the
need for parent orientation
on local regulations and
procedures and the need for
more low-cost youth activ
ities.
Among the attendees
was Aparna Shivram who
is originally from India.
She's president of the Indo
U.S. Cultural Association,
a 45-year-old organization
that does cultural presenta
tions and holds events like -
this Saturday's India Fest at
Winston Square Park.
She's lived in America for
15 years, with four of those
being in Winston-Salem.
Language was not an
issue for Shivram when she
immigrated, as English is
one of several languages
she knows because India
has a multitude of spoken
languages. During the
group session, she said that
it can be an issue for young
children, who may get mis
labeled as needing special
courses in school, when all
they need is a few more
months to grasp English.
She said she came to
the meeting because she
wants to be a part of the
solution for immigrant
communities.
"I think building inte
grated communities is so
important," she said. "Just
the fact that Winston
Salem is thinking about it
makes my heart swell with
pride."
BIC has previously
worked in High Point and
Greenville. High Point,
where BIC held meetings
in 2011 and 2012, formed
an International Advisory
Committee to provide
immigrant perspectives for
the city and an Interfaith
Affairs Committee to pro
mote understating between
religions. Many other
changes were made,
including an increase in
bilingual information and
greater transit system
access for immigrant com
munities.
"High Point has done
amazing things with this
process," said Gill.
The next step will be
going though all the needs
that have been brought up
and formulating an action
plan, Gill said. More meet
ings will be held to get
feedback on the plan as the
local initiative enters its
second year.
By the third year of the
three-year program, the
plan will be put into effect
and will be evaluated to
measure its effectiveness.
Pauline Morris, the
director of Forsyth
Technical Community
College's International
Center who serves on the
local BIC committee,
assured attendees that
change is coming.
"There will be a
response," she said. "There
will be something happen
ing because you came here
tonight."
Correction
A caption in The Chronicle misidentified a person in the photo shown in last
week's edition. The correct caption is below.
PW, by Erin Millie S .he Ouc.cl,
Mary Carpenter and Rudolph Valentino Boone Sr. listen as members of the
Carver High School Alumni Association speak during the Dedication of Band
Rooms celebration on Saturday, April 25.
Gardens
fiompage~AI
"Community gardens
are a way to make a grass
roots effort and impact to
feed others," she said. "All
I do is help them organize
themselves, find the horti
cultural information they
need in planting and give
them advice. It's about
them doing for themselves,
and when people do that,
they own it more."
Duncan said that she's
also seen an increase in
school gardens.
"The [Winston
Salem/Forsyth County]
school system has said that
there are very low, if any
barriers, to a school putting
a garden in place," Duncan
said. "[School board mem
ber] Elizabeth Motsinger
helped to make that happen
a few years ago, and that
has been a big help as
well."
The Extension Service
is getting ready for its
Growing School Gardens
program. The program is
geared toward educators,
administrators, staff and
parents in the Winston
Salem/Forsyth County
school system so that they
can help schools incorpo
rate gardens in their learn
ing environments.
At Cook Elementary
School, parents and stu
dents take extra care in the
garden that they have.
Fifth-Grade Teacher
Veleria Singletary said that
it has made all of the differ
ence for her students and
their parents.
Students first began
planting in the classroom
before ending up outside in
spring 2014 after mention
ing the ideas to its commu
nity partner, First
Presbyterian Church. The
church then came out to set
up the garden plots, put
fencing around them and
got everything the students
would need.
Singletary uses it as a
lesson on the Ecosystem
for Science and writing
prompts.
"Children have a love
for gardening. They love
watching things grow," she
said. "We go out every day,
even if it's just to walk
though and see what has
popped up in the garden.
Everyone has something
out there with their names
on it."
The garden is open to
everyone in the communi
ty. When it's time to har
vest, Singletary said that
the school has no problem
with their families coming
to get food.
"The families will
come in to get the garden
ready and a neighbor
comes to water in the sum
m c r
time.
The
parents
even
put a
shed up
this
year.
The par
'ents and
the com
munity
are Very involved," she
said. '
So how can you start up
your own garden? Duncan
said think first andllke an
assessment of what you
have on hand, especially
space. She said you should
also think about the sched
ule of the plant you are
planting and when it will
need to be harvested.
"From a horticulture
standpoint, you should
worry about adequate sun
light, at least seven hours a
day, access to water, space
and soil, whether it's test
ing it or buying it," she
said. "When picking seeds,
you want to think about
space and where the food is
going. Depending on who
is going to be eating the
food should determine
what you will be planting."
All of those looking to
plant in the city should
adhere to any laws and
seek out the proper permits.
For more information,
visit wwwfarsythcommuni
tygardening.com. You can
also call Alison Duncan at
336-703-2859 or email her
at duncanal@forsyth rc.
Photo by Brio Mitotic for The Grafck
Garden boxes, some already wUhhealthy
?cabbage heads showing, are filled with othei
seeds at Cook Elementary School in April.
Tnvir Originally, the city was going to sample the area around
uaic the school with 28th and 25th Streets as the northern and
from page southern boundaries, while Ivy and Patrick Avenues served
as the western and eastern boundaries.
Since April 1, the city has installed a total of 32 permanent monitoring wells in the
area. Sixteen of those wells are for sampling groundwater and the remaining 16 are to
monitor soil vapor.
Samples of soil, soil vapor and groundwater were submitted for analysis. While the
city has received some raw data from the laboratory, environmental sampling reports and
hydrological modeling must be completed. The city is hoping to have a comprehensive
report on Phase I monitoring efforts available by the end of June 2015 for the general
public.
"We promised residents an update and that's what we are giving them as to what
we're doing and where we're going. We don't just want to go back to the public with a
list of numbers" Huff said. "Our goal is to package all of that data from Phase I and II,
ship that information off to the state toxicologist, and then have the toxicologist render
the health risk assessment."
Rezoning
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forward," said Major James Allison. "We
need to pause to allow ourselves more time
to explore and evaluate the situation and
our options."
The nonprofit would like to purchase
the daycare building from Greater
Cleveland Christian Church and turn it into
an estimated 90-bed facility to house
homeless families made up of mostly sin
gle women and children.
The Housing Authority of Winston
Salem feels the shelter would have a chill
ing effect on investors, including new
homeowners, impacting the area's
Cleveland Avenue Initiative Master plan to
revitalize the community and bring eco
nomic development to the area.
That motion was unanimously accept
ed along with leaving the public hearing
open so that residents may speak at the
July 20 meeting where the issue will be
heard.
Local resident Marva Reid asked the
council to vote no on the rezoning.
"The city has a pattern of sanitizing
certain areas and negatively impacting
other areas," she said. "We have a master
plan and ask that you be consistent with us,
and ask that you adhere to it."
Council woman Denise D. Adams said
that she has seen the concentration of the
people that need the most, concentrated
with the neighborhoods that need the most
in the last few years. That's her reason for
not supporting the rezoning.
"We know we have to help people, but
you can't keep putting all the helped peo
ple with the poor people with the people
who are economically disadvantaged. It
doesn't give the neighborhoods a chance to
develop into something sustainable eco
nomically, investment and hope to poor
people," she said. "If you are a child grow
ing up and all you see is poor people, drug
addicts, people not working, people com
mitting crimes and people hanging out,
what do you think that child is going to
become?
Resident Estella Brown said that the
area is already struggling and full of dis
parities, without the added burden of a
homeless shelter.
"What other than housing would the
people in that area benefit from? Would
people who live there be able to be trained
to work there, or would there be people
brought from another area to be trained?
Sometimes that area is totally forgotten,"
Brown said to the council. "Have any of
you just taken the time to ride through the
streets? I'm not talking about in the day
time but in the evening and at night, to
actually see what goes on."
Councilman Robert Clark said the city
has dealt with rezoning shelters in the past
and said he often finds that they are
unwanted.
"In my 14 years on this council, I will
say that no one wants a homeless shelter in
their neighborhood. No one wants a home
less shelter or group home, for that maner,
in their neighborhood, but they're need
ed," he said. "I don't know where to put it
but I hope in the next 60 days that those
folks up here and those folks in the audi
ence can hopefully get together and try to
come up with some answers because it is
certainly a problem that needs to be
addressed. But at the same time, and I'll go
on the record, I don't want it in my neigh
borhood, either, so what do you do? I don't
know."
N.C. House Rep. Evelyn Terry attend
ed the public hearing and urged the council
to end the economic segregation and revi
talize and stabilize the community.
"The reality of that disinvestment from
the business community lends itself to that
because there is no critical mass that they
see that could cause them to make that
profit that they need or come into the com
munity to do something that uplifts it," she
said.
Ward representative. Councilman
Derwin Montgomery, said that the show of
opinion on Tuesday night was the hallmark
of what citizen participation and commu
nity looks like.
"It's when individuals have a concern
or an issue about something they come out
and voice that concern, whether it comes
out in the manner they desire or not,"
Montgomery said.
City Council will hear the rezoning
issue again on July 20 at 7 pm. at City
Hall in Room 230. The meeting can also be
viewed live online at http://winston
salem .granicus comJMediaPlayerphp ?pu
blish_id=29, or by watching the city's tel
evision station (WSTV-13) on Time Warner
Cable on channel 13.
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336-750-3220