Charlotte’s Latin American Coalition invited 50 newly arrived immigrant families to receive essential services this past weekend. More than 30 organizations joined the effort to provide food, clothing, medical checks and other support to an increasingly diverse community of newcomers.
The resource fairs are offered, by invitation, every three months. The Coalition turns its Central Avenue building into a one-stop shop for essential services for the events.
There’s a closet with winter clothes and blankets, and a food bank. Health clinics offer immunizations and information about mental health services. Schools help register new students and law offices provide consultations about immigration matters. It’s all free for the families.
José Hernández Paris, the Coalition's president, said the idea is to reach immigrant families who are still learning to navigate life in the United States.
“The vast majority have been here less than three months,” he said. “We're targeting those families who are new to Charlotte, who need the assistance with triage, to make sure that we can assist those who need it the most.”
The Coalition began organizing the fairs last year, in response to large numbers of people arriving from Venezuela, Colombia, Honduras and Cuba. Many didn’t have connections in the community and were at risk of homelessness. This year, Hernández Paris said they’re also seeing people from Haiti and Southeast Asia reach out for assistance.
Community effort
Mark Landon is a family advocate with the Hope Community Clinic, an organization that provided services at the fair. It is health care provider for the uninsured and underinsured. Landon said the need in immigrant communities right now feels overwhelming.
“It's definitely more challenging this season, even more challenging than the COVID season,” he said. “We're seeing a lot more folks coming with a lot less. They have less connections in the community and less resources that they're bringing with them. So, the needs are higher than in the past — the need for connection to community and how to navigate our systems, to really simple things like food and housing.”
A major goal of these fairs is to help newly arrived families build a network that can help them navigate those systems. Family Program Director Iggy Austin said that’s also the goal at Charlotte Bilingual Preschool, one of several education partners at the event.
“A lot of our efforts are towards connecting families to one another because we do understand that it is a super helpful tool in our community. Hispanics, we are very supportive. We work together,” she said. “It is important for us to connect these families not only to resources but to one another, so we can make a stronger community together.”
The preschool offers free educational services, including home-based support, to Spanish-speaking families in Mecklenburg County.
Diego Torres, one of the Coalition’s immigrant integration specialists, said transportation remains a major barrier for many people, even just to get to the resource fairs. It’s a reason some people who are invited aren’t able to attend.
Many immigrants in North Carolina are not allowed to have a driver’s license; and Ubers, cabs and other services are expensive.
“An organization donated bus passes to us,” Torres said. “Those have already run out. People need transportation but they arrive with nothing.”
Torres said families would also benefit from support paying for cellphone plans. The Coalition loses contact with some people in need, he said, because they cannot pay their phone bills.
