New Women New Yorkers Launch Party: Celebrating Women Immigrants from Around the World
Written by Sabrina Axster
On March 14, 2015, New Women New Yorkers (NWNY) held its Launch Party at the Centre for Social Innovation to celebrate its first flagship program, LEAD. Close to 150 guests joined the NWNY team and its partners for an evening of inspiration and entertainment, featuring several keynote addresses, a silent auction, and more.
Centre for Social Innovation, March 14, 6:30pm: NWNY team members are busy attending to final details before the event starts. Bartenders are writing the drinks list on the chalkboard, hummus and fresh vegetables are arranged into bowls, pizzas and ice bags are delivered just on time, and the last silent auction pieces are put into place. Excitement is in the air, the big day has finally arrived!
Thirty minutes later and the room starts filling up. While DJ Taela Naomi and stand-up comedian Tom Grossi warm up the room and guests enjoy their first drinks and appetizers, the silent auction quickly takes off. Tickets and gift cards to various NY shows and restaurants, stylish designer swim trunks, a party makeup and hair styling session, a silver bracelet from Peru, and a biking tour in Brooklyn are among the many fabulous items on offer. When the silent auction closes, some bids even exceed their face value!
In the Photo Booth room, guests are invited to write down their immigrant story on the white board. At the end of the night, it provides a glimpse of the diversity of the audience: from Ecuador and Panama to India and the Philippines via the Netherlands, Israel, or Egypt – the guests and team span across the globe.
Tracing back her own family history, Arielle Kandel, Founder and CEO of New Women New Yorkers, explains why helping immigrants is a cause so important and close to her heart. Arielle’s grandparents, originally from Poland and Germany, came to New York in the late 1930s. They crossed the Atlantic on the liner Champlain and her father was born just two months after they arrived in the city of opportunities. With the help of a strong support system – generous neighbours, family members, and new friends, her grandparents did succeed in assimilating to life in New York. But, as Arielle reminds the guests, many immigrants who arrive today in the city do not have this crucial support network.
Some immigrants are able to provide a better life for their family and children. But many others, even when they are well educated and skilled, remain unemployed or employed in professions for which they are overqualified. Besides, while women immigrants face many challenges that are common to all immigrants, they also face additional vulnerabilities. Almost two-thirds of women immigrants in the US have limited English proficiency, and a third have not completed high school. They play an increasingly important role in the economy, but at the same time they remain underrepresented in high-end occupations, resulting in lower earnings. Women immigrants are also particularly vulnerable to suffer abuse both at work and in their household.
While there are many organizations in place to help immigrants living and working in the city, there is no umbrella, cross-community organization focusing specifically on serving women immigrants. New Women New Yorkers exists to fill this gap. It offers programs to women immigrants in the 16-35 age range to empower them to transform their own lives and become role-models for other young immigrants and for their communities at large.
Central to the March 14 event was the celebration of NWNY’s first program, LEAD, a 3-month skills training and leadership development program. NWNY is running the pilot session of LEAD in partnership with Atlas: DIY, a non-profit serving undocumented youth in Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Maria Caba, speaking on behalf of Atlas as the first guest speaker of the evening, recounts her own story. Born in the Dominican Republic, she came to the US at the age of two with her family. After living in New York for over 25 years as an undocumented immigrant, she was able to benefit from DACA in 2013. First she joined Atlas as a participant in their receptionist-training program, and worked her way up to becoming Atlas’ Director of Operations and Outreach. Having the opportunity to gain such valuable hands-on training empowered Maria to become a role-model for other women immigrants and to pursue her education even further.
Chitra Aiyar, Executive Director of the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, an organization promoting leadership and activism among young women, was the evening’s 2nd guest speaker. Relating to her own experience as the daughter of Indian immigrants, Chitra stresses the significant pressure many children of immigrants face as they try to perform to the highest possible standards necessary to make it in the US – a dream for which many of their parents have sacrificed so much. Negotiating and achieving a balance between their home and host culture is another key challenge faced by young immigrants in particular. One of the guests, originally from Bangladesh, whispers with a smile: “This is the story of my life.”
The experiences and words shared by Arielle, Maria, and Chitra continue to resonate throughout the rest of the evening. Guests can be heard sharing with one another their immigrant background, and recounting stories about when they first came to New York, whether as children with their parents, to pursue higher education, or to seek for job and other opportunities. Arielle’s words that “New York is the quintessential immigrant city” with over 3 million immigrants come to life on this evening.
Don’t miss our video!
Video credits:
New Women New Yorkers (nywomenimmigrants.org)
Michelle Pomeroy & Jake Winsett
