Emily's Work

So, It has taken a bit to figure out what exactly I will be doing, but I finally feel like I have a handle on it.  I am working with a community organizing agency called Colonias Development Council. This agency historically has worked in the regions around the border called colonias, to develop affordable housing, infrastructure such as roads, potable and waste water systems.  Colonias are the "towns" or areas along the border which lack basic infrastructure or political recognition.  In historical colonias, small house-size plots of land were sold to individual families by developers without allocating space for things like streets etc.  Because of this, most plots within the development were inaccessible and families couldn't access their land because it was locked inside other plots.  In order to eventually put in roads and sewer systems individual families had to give up their land. CDC developed out of the need for the colonias around Las Cruces to organize, be recognized by the state, and to work towards getting basic infrastructure.   Their main goal is to provide training and outreach opportunities for members of the colonia communities so they can make the changes they want to see within their own cummunities. 

For the past 25 years CDC has really developed out of the need of the colonias communities and because of this has changed their area of focus based on what each community states they need.  This makes my position both exciting and a little uncertain.  The need that we have heard the most of in the past year is to have legal aid in the naturalization process and citizenship classes.  Last year 8.12 million immigrants in the U.S. were eligible for nationalization but only 620,000 actually went through the process.  It is not an easy process and there seems to be a lack of support and/or programs to help increase the number of eligible immigrants achieve their citizenship.  This is where I come in.  I am working on developing a citizenship program for CDC here in Las Cruces.  The cool part is that I get to envision and develop the program based on the research and needs I see.  This is also the scary part.

I have really enjoyed my first two weeks here and have started to really get a grasp on what I would like to see happen in terms of this program.  My hope is to help develop a comprehensive program which collaborates with New Mexico State University Education program to offer a three- class citizenship program.  I am working on developing curriculum for an ESL course, a ESL civics-based course and a citizenship course.  The ESL course would be targeted to clients who do not speak any English and need to work on their language skills before they can begin preparing for the citizenship test.  The second course, the civics based ESL course, would develop students English language skills but be based around the citizenship test material.  The citizenship course would be for students who have a great grasp of English but just need a crash course in U.S. history and civics for the test.  Ideally I will be able to develop a mentoring program with student teachers from NMSU, where they can develop their teaching skills and get some supported time in the classroom while they volunteer as citizenship class teachers.

This is the plan but we will see how it all works.  This past week I have been focusing on researching other programs in the country and finding resources which will help us develop our legal aid program and the citizenship class program.  It has been great getting to know my co-workers.  I will be working closest with Erika and Elva who will be doing the legal aid part of our citizenship program.  But I will also be working with Veronica, Diana and Irma when we get to actually implementing our program.  Veronica and Diana are the main organizers - they are out in the community connecting people, training community members to be community leaders etc.  They will be how we connect with community in terms of where we host our classes and making sure people know about the program. 

I will keep you updated as things develop.  I plan on just taking one step at a time.