Our ValuesLike our ancestors who helped build this country, today’s immigrants and refugees bring important values to the community including:
Littleton is a community with a long history of caring for people. In the Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative, we aim to carry on this important tradition.
Who We AreThe members of the Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative are a group of volunteers representing:
A steering committee oversees the work of the initiative and reports to The Colorado Trust. In addition, a number of committees help to guide the policies and activities of the initiative. HistoryThe Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative has its roots in the 2004 Littleton Leadership Retreat. During that retreat, more than 70 Littleton residents gathered to learn about the increasing number of people from other cultures who are coming to our community and discuss how long-term residents could reach out to them. After the retreat, a group of volunteers received a year-long planning grant from The Colorado Trust. The volunteers spent the following year talking with long-term and new residents to learn what would make this community a place where newcomers are welcomed and can “lift themselves by their bootstraps,” as our ancestors did. In a series of ‘community conversations,’ existing and new residents shared what they value about Littleton. Newcomers and long-term residents alike said they value Littleton’s excellent schools, low crime rate, extraordinary recreational opportunities, and beautiful parks and walking trails. The immigrants also said they would like more information about work, housing, transportation, recreation and other daily activities. In addition, they said want to feel more a part of the community’s cultural and civic activities. Following the year of planning, in 2005 the initiative was selected to receive four years of funding from The Colorado Trust. New Citizens Sworn In at Library Ceremony: August 30, 2007Weaving the Fabric of a Community: YourHub News Article (published in the Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post), April 17, 2007Buried in the 2000 U.S. Census data was a number that caught the eye of Littleton civic leaders. The number was 2,304 -- the number of Littleton's foreign-born residents. It represented a 123 percent increase from 1990. Realizing it was important to help Littleton's immigrants integrate into the fabric of the community, civic leaders and citizens addressed the issue at a 2004 leadership retreat. After the retreat, a group of volunteers received a yearlong planning grant from the Colorado Trust. The result of their efforts was the Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative (LI3). The program uses a three-pronged approach to help ease the transition for immigrants into the community by providing a one-stop information center, a health and wellness program that serves as a link between immigrants and area health providers, and a school-parent liaison who works to foster good relationships between schools and immigrant parents. Susan Thornton, chair of LI3 and Littleton's mayor from 1989 to 1993 and again from 1999 to 2002, said Littleton has a long history of tolerance and acceptance, as well as reaching out to people, and that's important when it comes to integrating immigrants into the community. "If you don't reach out to these people you really risk becoming a sort of we-they community," she said. Alejandra Harguth is the initiative's immigrant information coordinator and runs the aptly named One-Stop Information Center housed in the Bemis Public Library. "If you need information and you don't know where to go, you can come in here and ask and I'll tell you where to go," Harguth said. When she's not dispensing information, Harguth, the program's only full-time employee, is out in the community spreading the word about the free programs the initiative offers, and it seems to be working: In March 2006, 17 people walked in or called the office; this past March that number had risen to 250, she said. Citizenship Mentors Part of LI3 that is unique among other immigrant initiatives is the one-on-one Citizenship Mentoring Program it offers to immigrants hoping to become U.S. citizens. Thornton said the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) has called it a national model. In order to become a U.S. citizen, an applicant must have been a permanent resident for at least five years, pass an FBI background check and successfully complete an interview that includes a test of English writing and reading skills as well as civics questions. More than 50 volunteers have signed up to tutor immigrants in preparation for the citizenship interview and exam, said Harguth, who has been with LI3 for five months. Presently, there are 18 volunteer mentors matched with immigrants. Thornton said she is pleased with the program's reception in the community. "It just seems to be mushrooming as people find out about it," she said. "There is a lot of need in the community, and I believe there are a lot of people who want to help who remember their ancestors came here without much and worked their way up." Chuck Fraser, a retired physician, is a volunteer mentor in the program and has been working with a woman for the past six weeks. He said they meet once a week, and a typical session involves reviewing the questions on the citizenship exam, some writing exercises and a critique of her language skills. "It's rewarding, and I think it's a good, worthwhile project," said Fraser, whose wife Virginia is also a mentor in the program. "The two (people) my wife and I are teaching have been very enthusiastic and appreciative." The initiative arranged with CIS to hold a naturalization ceremony -- where the Oath of Allegiance is taken -- at the library this summer for the students in the program at the library this summer. LI3 also offers the Immigrant Friends Program. Its goal is to promote cultural understanding by pairing new immigrant residents or families in the community with existing residents. Thornton said one family from Peru wanted to learn how to ride light rail, so their partner family showed them. In return, the family from Peru took the American family to a Peruvian restaurant. Harguth said the majority of the community feedback she's received about the initiative has been positive, and a few people have a misperception that it's funded by the city. LI3 actually is being funded by the Colorado Trust through a four-year grant. The initiative's office in the Bemis Public Library is being provided as an in-kind donation, she said. Harguth is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Mexico, and so knows firsthand the difficulties Littleton's immigrants are facing and the benefits they're getting from the initiative. "As far as I'm concerned," she said, "it's an awesome program. At the end of the day, I know I've helped an enormous number of people."
Kevin Hamm The Littleton Immigrant Integration Initiative is building bridges of understanding between immigrants and the Littleton community. These bridges begin in the classroom, the church basement, the library, and in homes of long-time residents. A buzz of conversation and eager questions greet you when you walk into the ESL classes at Bemis Library. People from Korea, Japan, Russia, Mexico, and numerous other cultures have formed a cohesive community of students under the direction of Dawn Munson, lead teacher in the program. Walk around the corner of the basement classroom and you find the One-Stop Information Center where a Moroccan immigrant is asking the coordinator Alejandra Harguth where she can find a clinic for her new baby. Next in line is a newcomer to Littleton who asks how she can enroll her eight-year-old in school. She connects her with the Spanish Hot Line telephone directed by Vanessa Graziano, the School/Parent Liaison for Littleton Public Schools In the evening, Bemis library will be the site of a program on Nutrition, Parenting, and Child Development, one of a series offering vital information to immigrants. Daiga Keller, the Initiative's Community Health Liaison, will also remind the participants that the Care Van will be in the parking lot of the library on Monday to provide basic health services for free. A few blocks from the library, a family who has lived in Littleton for 10 years welcomes their newly-matched immigrant family to lunch at their home. The family is part of the Immigrant Friends program, coordinated by Jean Flynn, and organized to develop cross-cultural understanding. The 8-year-old breaks the ice by offering one of his favorite toys to the three-year-old boy from Colombia. More than 100 immigrants from more than 12 countries pack into the basement of the Living Word Tabernacle church to listen to a panel of from the federal; Citizenship and Immigration Service and an immigration attorney. Translation through headphones bridges the language barrier as myriad questions are asked of the panel. The Initiative is planning to expand these and other bridge-building activities in the coming months with the hope of spanning the breadth of cultures in Littleton and strengthening the bonds that build community.
Connie Shoemaker |