Readers Care: New Futures helps immigrants lower language barriers

Helping a child with homework can challenge the patience of any parent. But when the homework is in a language the parent can't read, speak or write, the challenge can be insurmountable.

Norma Ortiz understands this more than most. When she came to Burien from Mexico four years ago, she knew just enough English to get by in brief encounters.

		Scott Eklund / P-I
	Norma Ortiz, second from left, plays at home with her children. Ortiz, an immigrant from Mexico, used New Futures to learn English after she arrived in this country four years ago. Now she works for the organization as a community developer, helping other families.

"I could say 'Hi' and 'Good morning,' " she recalls.

But when her children started school, that wasn't enough. They had trouble, and she couldn't figure out how to help.

"I thought maybe it's because I don't speak English, and I don't understand what (teachers) say," Ortiz says. "How can I help my children if I don't understand English?"

Fortunately for Ortiz, when she moved to Burien she got an apartment at Vintage Park, where Readers Care Fund charity New Futures operates a site.

Ortiz enrolled in the Leamos program, which offers both English and parenting classes to immigrant parents living at the low-income complex.

"New Futures is like a family," Ortiz says of the organization she now works for as a community developer. "It's made a lot of changes in my life and the life of my children."

Ortiz is one of several people who have gone through New Futures programs, then gone on to work for the organization.

People like Ortiz have dramatically changed New Futures over the past seven years, Associate Director Laura Silverstein says, because they bring a crucial element of understanding to the communities where they work.

"Their experiences are similar to those of the families we serve," Silverstein says.

"Not all of our staff comes from the communities we serve," Silverstein says, but those who don't spend a lot of time immersed in them, and "become a part of the fabric of the community."

Lucia Martinez is another New Futures program "graduate" who now works for the group. Martinez is a family advocate, helping connect parents with resources in the community and teaching them about life in the U.S. She loves her job and is great at what she does, Silverstein says.

"It's easy when you understand the kind of problems they have," Martinez says modestly, "because they are the problems I had."

Martinez recalls helping a mother who was thrilled when her son asked for a bandana for Christmas. The bandana was a very traditional item from her home in Mexico, and the mother thought her son was seeking to honor his heritage.

Martinez had to explain that even if those were his intentions, a bandana could mark him as a gang member.

It's the kind of conversation the mother probably wouldn't have with someone at her son's school, she says.

"When you see people who look like you and speak your language, it's easier to talk."

Like Ortiz, Martinez started coming to New Futures in part because she didn't have any family support system nearby. Her daughter was starting kindergarten, and neither mother nor daughter spoke English.

"I feel really lucky to have found New Futures," Martinez says.

Now, though she still has no family in the area, she has a close-knit group of co-workers and friends at New Futures. And just as important, she says she has a job that feels truly rewarding rather than the unskilled fast-food work she'd been used to.

"Now I'm giving back to the community what they gave to me," she says.

"Sometimes as an immigrant, it's very frustrating to know you can do something better than what you can find for a job. Immigrants have a lot of skills but no opportunities. New Futures finds opportunities."

In addition to New Futures, Readers Care Fund beneficiaries this year are Seattle Education Access, Renton Area Youth and Family Services, Seattle's Forgotten Children's Fund, Northwest's Child, and Rise n' Shine.

READERS CARE FUND

For more than a quarter-century, Seattle P-I readers have donated generously to the newspaper's annual Readers Care Fund, generating more than $5.6 million for local charities. Today we feature another of the six charities that will benefit from this year's drive. Read more about the charity drive at readerscarefund.org.