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Resource Report - 45 Multicultural Service Center of South Sound · Resource Report

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Hello and welcome to Resource Report, where we share
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with you important information about local nonprofits
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and resource organizations that support the community
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we share, produced by Pathways to Agency. I am
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your host, Rainmaker. Today's guest is the Education
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Director of the Multicultural Service Center
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of South Sound. Please welcome Ellie Stevens.
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I am here at the Multicultural Service Center
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of South Sound, MSC, downstairs at the YWCA building
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with Ellie Stevens, the education director of
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the organization. How are you doing today, Ellie?
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Hey, Rainmaker. Good morning. I'm good. How are
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you? I'm doing good. I love this rainy weather.
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Yes. And so I'd like you to reintroduce yourself,
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give us your position, and how did you come to
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be here? All right. Yeah, hi Rainmaker. So I'm
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Ellie Stevens. I'm the Education Director here
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at MSC, the Multicultural Service Center. I'm
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very new here. I've been working here about four
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months. I came to be here... it's kind of a long
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story, but I used to volunteer teaching ESL to
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adults, English as a second language, at Cielo
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here in Olympia. Cielo unfortunately had to mostly
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close last year and I really missed teaching
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English to adults, working with adults. I looked
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around and I found this organization that,...and
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I visited a few months later. And the current
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education or the former education director, Jennifer,
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they needed a different education director. And
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so Jennifer mentored me. And yeah, they brought
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me on. Jennifer has been mentoring me ever since.
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And here I am. Oh, awesome. Thank you. Thank
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you for sharing that. And so can you give us
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a history of MSC, the organization? Sure. Yeah,
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MSC is a little tiny nonprofit. We're fairly
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new. We've been around since 2021 here in Olympia.
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But the roots run back many decades farther.
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Back in the 70s and the 80s, there used to be
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a refugee support center in the South Sound region.
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And then funding for that dried up and that disappeared.
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And so... Local community leaders saw a need
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for specifically services for refugees in this
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area. Because these days, if you want services
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as a refugee specifically, you've got to go to
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Tacoma, Seattle, even Portland. So, you know,
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the organization was born out of the desire to
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kind of bring back those services that used to
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be here. And, yeah, we're a small and pretty
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young organization. These days, you know, the
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things we offer are very simple. We're a community
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tutoring space where people can come in and practice
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their English or practice for their citizenship
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exam. Oh, cool. So I have a question. So you
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used the word refugee. There seems to be, like,
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what is the difference between refugee and immigrant?
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Because immigrant, the word immigrant gets tossed
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around a lot. And I don't hear the word refugee
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very much. And I think maybe I have an idea for
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myself what the difference might be. But I would
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like to hear your perspective. Oh, gosh. Well.
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I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer that
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because I'm not a lawyer. We serve everybody,
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regardless of whether they officially have refugee
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status or not. Part of the reason you don't hear
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so much about refugees these days is that it's
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much harder to become a refugee than it used
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to be. I think the last... as far as I know, the
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last group of official refugees who came to the
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United States came a couple years ago. I'm sorry,
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who came to Olympia. came a couple years ago
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um and I'm thinking of a group of people from
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Venezuela who qualified for like, refugee status.
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It is really hard to qualify for refugee status
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these days although there are more people than
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ever who need it. So it's.. it's less of a descriptive
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term, and more of actually a legal term. Oh absolutely.
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Absolutely. In reality, I would say, you know,
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anyone who moves to the United States because
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life isn't tenable in their home country is a
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refugee, in my opinion. But to be legally counted
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as a refugee, you have to jump through a million
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hoops. And the reason is, if you legally count
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as a refugee, you are entitled to a certain amount
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of support, some supportive housing. I don't
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actually know what all the services are, or used
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to be, but, you know, I think some supportive
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housing, some support with, like, training and
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employment support. And if you... so
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our government works very hard to make sure as
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few people as possible qualify for that, so that
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they have to support as few people as possible.
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So most people are on their own. So y 'all are
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working more with refugees than immigrants, or
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is it a mix? No, we work with everybody. I think
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we work with refugees in the... widest possible
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sense of the term, not the legal sense of the
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term. I see. We work with anybody who comes through
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our doors and asks to come. Okay, okay. That's
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helpful for clarifying. Thank you. And so what
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are the mission, vision, and goals of the Multicultural
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Service Center? Well, I've got it written down
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here. The Multicultural Service Center of South
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Sound is a welcoming gathering space where people
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of all backgrounds can find community, safety,
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and belonging. We're committed to equity, cultural
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responsiveness, and inclusive practices that
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honor lived experience and support people in
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thriving. So yeah, that right there is... is
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our community commitment. Thank you. And so you
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offer a couple of different programs. Y 'all
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offer English classes and Citizenship Prep. Can
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you talk about those, please? Yes. I'd like to
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use a different term other than classes. We actually
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do not offer formal classes. Ohhh... We offer one -on
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-one and small group tutoring. Okay. There are
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other places in town where you can go and take
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a class. You used to be able to do that at Cielo.
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Unfortunately, you can't do that now. You can
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do that at SPSCC, and there are a few other places
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you can do that. But so many people have said
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to me, just in the community and also here, so
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many people have said to me, I don't have anybody
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I can practice with. I sit in class and I listen,
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but I don't really have anybody I can talk to.
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feel comfortable saying awkward things with make
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mistakes with that's what we're for we are a
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place you can come in and sit down on our couch
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or in our chairs and chat with somebody twice
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a week so you know sometimes, throughout my
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life and even like, in New Orleans, or even here
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or when I lived in Memphis, like, so many libraries
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across the country, or church organizations...
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different third space places, I've seen... there'll
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be a little flyer that there's like a talking
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group or conversation group or something for,
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like I've seen them for different languages,
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even sign language as well, where you just meet
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up with a group and, you know, with native speakers
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and communicate, just, you know, kind of informally
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practice your language learning. And so it's
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kind of more like that. Yes, it is. Oh, okay.
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So it's not like a formal class. The library
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has talk time. This is another option. Oh, okay.
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Now, you know, the tutors who volunteer here
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tend to be people who come here pretty regularly.
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And as they come, they... They learn tricks.
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So it's not quite the same as talking to a random
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stranger on the street. It's talking to a random
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stranger who has some practice doing this. Okay,
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so they figured out this is the best way to help
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someone else learn this language. It's not necessarily
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the best way. It's a way. A way. It's a way.
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Okay. And I think... Also, one of the beautiful
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things that goes on here is that lots of different
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language learners are here at the same time.
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And I think some of the best learning that I
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see happening is actually when, you know, a person
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whose first language is Spanish is pushing themselves
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to communicate with a person whose first language
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is Mandarin. That gets really special. Oh my
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goodness! And when, you know, one or two volunteers
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whose first language is English are there supporting.
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Yeah, that can get really beautiful. That explains
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a little bit of my experience. So for those who
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may not know, I share the downstairs basement
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office space. Yeah, you're our neighbor.. Yeah, and my little bitty room
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there is in the corner, and y 'all often occupy
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the large common area down here. And so I'll
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be coming down, and I'm walking through, and
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you've got everybody out here, and I'm going
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to my little office, and I'm hearing so much
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speaking and chatter, and I have an ear for languages
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a little bit, not necessarily learning them,
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though I do know a few words. few different languages
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but only a few not enough for conversation but
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I'm really good at picking up nuance and
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accent, um, and so like I'm noticing that there's
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like several different languages being spoken
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at one time, and it's like, wow! That's... is that
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really what I'm hearing? It's like, very interesting
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so, um, so yeah, that's really cool, and now
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I get it, what's going on. I was a little bit confused
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there, yeah, for a little bit. We're a really interlingual
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space. It's really cool there is no expectation
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that you only speak English when you come in
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our doors and that that's really important to
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me I have a background in dual language elementary
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education and um you know the way a child best
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learns English as a second language is by using
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their... well yes, but also by having a strong foundation
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in their first language, and you know if i want
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a child to understand a topic in English it's
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also really helpful if I can.. if the child understands
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the topic somewhat in their first language um
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and really i feel like that's true for adults,
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too. I want adults to be able to communicate
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in their first language, too. I encourage tutors
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to push themselves to learn a few words in the
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student's first language. I think it definitely
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has its value, and I myself have really benefited
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from immersion. I speak English and Spanish,
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and my day job is actually working as a Spanish
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interpreter here in Olympia. And I wouldn't have
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become fluent in Spanish if I hadn't been able
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to have immersive experiences living in Mexico,
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in my case. But I think it's important to remember
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that, you know, it's important to sort of do...have
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a kind of a cultural kind of power analysis of
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the position that immigrants in the United States
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are in. I think, I think, I just have this sense
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that it's so important for people who are in
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a disempowered position in society to feel safe
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using their first languages as a tool for learning
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a second language. So, you know, when people
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come in here, they practice English, and they
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really do. But if there's a student who wants
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to recite children's poetry to me in her first
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language, teach me how to write a little bit
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in her first language. Teach me how to say goodnight
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in his first language. Talk with another student
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in their first language. Heck yes. It's like
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an exchange. It can be like an exchange. And
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I also just really, really want people to feel
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welcomed as their whole self here. For sure.
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Because in order to learn, you've got to feel
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safe and you've got to feel respected. And in
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order to do that... You've got to appreciate
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somebody's language, and you've got to respect
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somebody's language. We've got the flags hanging
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up here. I try to have every single student and
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volunteer's flags, because we've got volunteers
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from lots of countries, and I think some of our
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best volunteers are immigrants themselves. I
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try to have everybody's flag up here as just
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a very small reminder of we want to honor. your
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whole self. You're not just here to practice
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your English. For sure. And representation matters.
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And also that brings up this idea of the melting
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pot that people have talked about of America
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and also Americanization as well. And, you know,
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let's remember, please, people, that the United
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States of America was created through people
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immigrating to the United States. And genocide.
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Yes, yes, definitely, definitely. There's, yeah,
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dark history, dark history that people want to
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sweep under the rug. Yeah, in terms of metaphors
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for the United States, I really like the metaphor
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of a salad bowl better than the metaphor of a
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melting pot. I definitely like that. It's such
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a nice metaphor for... you know, what the United
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States is and, you know, what we would love the
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United States to be. I like that much better.
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The melting pot idea, I think, came about a long
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time ago. Yeah, that makes me think of, like,
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gross cheese fondue. Yeah. Whereas the salad
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bowl, like, you want your salad to be colorful.
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You want your salad to be diverse. The better,
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the more stuff you've got in your salad, the
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better it is. You wouldn't want to take a tomato
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and mush it and crush it together with a lettuce
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leaf. No. No. They taste good when they retain
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their own identity and when they combine together
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with other identities. English can be like the
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salad dressing that you mix everything with.
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Exactly. Literally. And, you know, it's ironic
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because, you know, at first when I started doing
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ESL with adults, I thought, oh, this is not going
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to be for me. You know.. here, I'm an interpreter. I love
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speaking Spanish. I love connecting with our
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immigrant communities. And the last thing I want
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to do is help people assimilate. So at first
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I thought, oh, this isn't going to be for me.
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But once I started and once I saw what a need
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it meets and how much it means to people to have
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access to, English classes. And just, I don't
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know, the energy that people bring, the enthusiasm
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that people bring, the deep need that people
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have to learn our culture's contact language.
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A contact language is the language that everybody
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uses to communicate from different linguistic
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backgrounds. I started to view it differently.
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You know, part of what I do here, part of what
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we do here is teach U .S. civics for... you have
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to know U .S. civics in order to pass your U
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.S. citizenship exam. And at first I thought,
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oh, I hate this. This is awful. I'm just sitting
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here helping people memorize. George Washington
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was the first president of the United States.
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The Constitution has 27 amendments. I hope I'm
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getting that right. I'm learning. I could never
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have passed this exam myself if my life depended
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on it before I started trying to teach other
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people. I still couldn't pass it. I'm getting
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there. But, when I see the sense of accomplishment
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and power and confidence that it brings to people
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to practice these things, and when I think about
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the very practical survival benefits that come
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with citizenship, and when students tell me I
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need to do this, then I think, okay, let's do
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it. Let's make this happen for you. Learning
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English increases people's visibility. It increases
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people's agency and power in our culture. Now,
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on my own time, I also teach a community Spanish
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class. And I think it's equally important for
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English speakers to practice Spanish, being the
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second language of our country and our culture.
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And a lot of our volunteers get a lot of Spanish
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practice. and Russian practice, and Mandarin practice,
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and even practice in Urdu and Persian, when they
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come in here. But I don't know. I think it's
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making me challenge my earlier sort of black
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and white ideas of what's assimilation and what
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does respect for somebody else's culture look
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like. For sure. In the past, our... Our organization
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has functioned more as like a language buddy
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program, and we may do that again in the future.
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Working on a drop -in basis has a lot of flexibility.
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It makes the program accessible for people. You know, when
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they're free, they can come in. When they've
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got to take their teenagers to driver's ed, they
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don't come in. When they're feeling well, they
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come in. When they're feeling sick, they don't
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come in. Also, I think there's a bit of an advantage
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to talking to different people every night. Some
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nights you work one -on -one. Some nights you
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work in small groups. And as you've heard, like, when
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we pair up students who speak Mandarin with students
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who speak Spanish, boy, that's a very different
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challenge. So I think, you know, the people who
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like coming here are people who are, first of
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all, very brave and willing to kind of jump in
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and talk to different people on different days.
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And so, you know, logistically, as the program
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director, it's much easier to organize the program
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when my job is simply come here, open the door,
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be present for whoever shows up, and support
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whoever shows up. Now, having a language buddy
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system is very different. That means that, you
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know, you as a student are always paired with
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me, the tutor. We got to coordinate. You know,
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we got to text each other, be making sure, okay,
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we're going to see each other this Monday. We're
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going to see each other this Thursday. It's going
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to be much more structured. Now, you and I are going to get to know each
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other much better. And that can be wonderful.
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That can be amazing. You know, there's a participant in our program who
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participated in the Language Buddy program a
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couple years ago, is still in touch with their
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language buddy and their Language Buddy and them
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are still very close, do all sorts of.. you know,
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are very involved in each other's lives. That
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can be really wonderful. Um, you know, I know somebody
23:16
else who was a Language Buddy who was able to
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you know have a long -term relationship with
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their language.. their student Buddy and was able to
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help them with a lot of things like getting a
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car when that person needed help car shopping.
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Having those long -term personal relationships
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allows you to really, I mean, do the things that
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a person needs help with when they move to a
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new country, just sort of learning how everything
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works, like how do I shop for a car? A drop -in
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program is not going to help you shop for a car.
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Right. It's going to help you... You might make
23:53
a friend, though. You might. You might, you know,
23:55
hey, let's meet up and help me. I've got this
23:58
thing to do. You certainly might. And the people
24:01
who come here tend to come here again and again.
24:03
It's way more less formal. It's way more informal.
24:06
It's very informal currently. And, you know,
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our programming changes and evolves over time.
24:13
So we may, you know, we may, we may. come back
24:18
to the Language Buddy structure at some point.
24:20
There seems to be like a need for that that develops
24:24
and maybe you get more regular people that are
24:27
coming and then you see this is a natural evolution
24:32
that we can move into yes. Yes it makes sense,
24:35
but I think that our current drop -in structure
24:38
from like an organizational perspective is a
24:41
really nice way to start just because logistically,
24:45
it's kind of easy to do. And, you know, I don't
24:49
have to be calling people or texting people to
24:51
confirm whether they're coming, although many
24:53
people do just of their own volition confirm
24:55
with me. But, you know, even if... x person doesn't
25:00
show up tonight, like, that's okay. So for the Language
25:02
Buddy program you'd need to have more coordination
25:05
and... It would be more coordination and it would
25:08
be more administrative hours on my end which
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would mean my organization would need to pay
25:12
me more and so, you know, it's it's kind of there
25:18
are pros and cons on each side sure. And then
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what about the citizenship group? Oh boy. The
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Citizenship Group. Yeah. How do you get involved
25:45
in that one? Same way. You walk in and you say
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you want to do Citizenship. Last night I was
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doing Citizenship with two students who've actually
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been here many times before and they've always
25:59
practiced English in the past. But last week
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one of them said to me, you know, I want to try
26:04
citizenship. I've been studying on my own on
26:07
my phone and now I'm ready to start practicing
26:10
with humans. Yeah, it was so beautiful to watch
26:13
her starting. When she was looking at her phone,
26:17
she knew all the answers like that. But actually,
26:20
like, for example, I would ask her the questions
26:23
aloud, and it really took focus on her part to
26:27
work on her oral comprehension. Listening to
26:31
a stranger read these questions to her in English.
26:34
And in your citizenship interview, you will have
26:36
to... listen to a random stranger ask you the
26:39
questions. You won't be able to see them. So
26:42
that's what we did. It's kind of like practicing
26:45
driving the car in a parking lot with your mom
26:48
or dad and then, okay, I think you're good enough.
26:52
Now it's time to actually enroll you in a driver's
26:57
ed program. And then there's the driver's ed
27:00
program and the book learning and the practical.
27:04
learning from that and then now you're gonna
27:07
go to the DMV and take the driving test. Kind
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of, but we also work with folks who are total
27:15
beginners at this and who haven't been studying
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before. We have citizenship guides here. We can
27:20
print out the questions in your first language.
27:26
It's especially nice when we have multiple people
27:28
from the same language background. For example,
27:30
multiple Spanish speakers who are sitting on
27:33
the couch together, working through the questions
27:35
together. The big challenge is, like, how do
27:40
you help somebody understand U .S. civics when
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they don't have a background in U .S. civics?
27:44
And especially if you don't share a language
27:47
with them. So we have a lot of visual aids. We
27:51
have a lot of patience. We have a lot of... humor
27:54
we have a lot of misunderstandings but you know
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people come and and they practice a lot of it's
28:02
just rote memorization and gaining confidence
28:04
too. Surprising conversations can come out
28:17
of it. You know, as I said, I was not psyched
28:21
at first, I was not excited about coming and teaching
28:25
immigrants to memorize, you know, why did the United
28:29
States... why did the United States enter the
28:32
Vietnam War? The answer they have to parrot is
28:35
to stop the spread of communism. I was like,
28:38
why am I doing this? But that's a whole deep
28:41
dive I could go on right there. Okay. Yes. So
28:45
it feels really gross sometimes, but then these
28:51
beautiful things come from it. Like one of the
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questions on the citizenship exam is something
28:56
like, Who was here in the United States before
28:59
the settlers arrived? The answer is Native Americans.
29:04
They're still here. I was talking about that
29:07
with a group of students recently, and one of
29:10
the students, this was a group of students from
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Latin America, a couple of whom identify as Indigenous
29:17
or from an Indigenous group in their home country.
29:20
One of them, actually, one of the Indigenous
29:24
students asked, said something like, there aren't
29:28
any Native Americans who live near Olympia anymore,
29:31
right? They just live in really remote areas.
29:33
And another student piped up and said, well,
29:35
I work in an area near Olympia where there are
29:40
a lot of Indigenous people, and the person named
29:42
a specific Indigenous tribe. And so we went online,
29:47
we started researching that tribe. It turned
29:50
out they had a big cultural event going on, and
29:54
we watched. watch videos of their cultural event
29:57
that was going on. We actually made plans to
30:00
take a field trip down there, and then the logistics
30:02
didn't work out. I was really bummed. But people
30:04
really wanted to go. Sometimes people have really
30:10
beautiful conversations and also beautiful little
30:13
mini history lessons that come out of this somewhat
30:19
awful civics curriculum. That's awesome, though.
30:25
Yeah, you know, the Pacific Northwest has actually
30:30
a very strong Indigenous cultural presence. Like,
30:37
I'm actually from Southeast Louisiana, and there
30:41
are actually a lot of indigenous in the southeast
30:44
United States in general. Like, not just Louisiana,
30:48
but it's not, they're not loud. The Indigenous
30:54
here are loud. They're loud and proud. And I'm
30:56
really glad for that. Yeah. Yeah. So, kind of.
31:03
So, hey, if anybody listening is Indigenous and
31:05
wants to come volunteer here, you should come
31:07
volunteer. We need you. That would be great.
31:09
I think the Indigenous cultures I hear are also
31:14
working on making sure that their native languages
31:20
are not lost. Yeah, you should see. Yeah. So
31:37
that kind of brings us into the next situation
31:41
where we're talking about ICE. Lovely. Yeah.
31:50
Everybody's favorite topic. Yeah. So how exposed
31:57
do you feel here with that? Has anyone that you've
32:02
worked with here been impacted by ICE or other..
32:07
Or is there any other negative community sentiment
32:09
that they've experienced? Oh my goodness. Well,
32:15
I'm going to take a step back and answer this
32:20
question from my perspective as a Spanish interpreter
32:25
here in Olympia. Everybody feels the impact of
32:32
ICE. Everybody feels directly and indirectly
32:38
impacted by it. I mean, I, as a citizen, feel
32:42
impacted by it. Imagine how much more somebody
32:45
is an immigrant. Everybody feels impacted by
32:47
it. I hope that our organization can be a safe
32:54
space for people. I know that there has been
33:01
a student who has told me, sorry, I haven't seen
33:04
you for several months. I didn't really feel
33:06
safe leaving the house for a while. And then
33:11
they came back for a while. And we saw them again
33:14
for a while. It takes courage for people to come
33:19
here. It takes courage for people to get out
33:26
of their houses and come here. It takes courage
33:28
for people to take the bus here. A lot of people
33:32
take the bus here because we're on a bus route.
33:34
It takes courage for people to walk out to their
33:37
cars that they've parked on the street to go
33:39
home. I hope... our goal is to be a safe space.
33:46
We don't have any information about our students'
33:49
immigration status. We don't store any information
33:52
about that. We don't store any information about
33:55
our students' addresses. Nothing like that. The
34:02
sad truth is that if ICE wants to find you, I
34:07
think the governor of Washington has shared everybody's
34:10
license plates with ICE. So they will... They
34:17
will find you if they want to find you unless
34:19
you get smart. Everybody's is in everybody or
34:25
certain individuals? No, the darker your skin
34:28
is, the more vulnerable you are. I don't know.
34:35
I'm in a community rapid response group, and
34:39
the patterns that I see are that ICE doesn't
34:43
mess around in downtown Olympia. They go and
34:46
kidnap people more in Lacey Hawks Prairie. There
34:53
was an incident in the parking lot at Ralph's
34:56
a little while back. Yeah, no, you're so right.
34:58
You're so right. No, they have kidnapped somebody
35:01
by Ralph's. They kidnapped somebody on Boulevard
35:03
Road, too. So their psychological warfare is
35:12
unrelenting. So that's a reality that we live
35:19
with. Have y 'all considered remote, Zoom, or
35:29
even phone? To tell you the truth, that's not
35:33
something we've considered recently. I think
35:36
some remote tutoring did happen in the early
35:40
years of the Pandemic. But no, that's actually
35:43
not something we've considered recently. Maybe
35:45
we should. It could be an option, not all the
35:49
time, but offered as an option. You know, if
35:52
like that person that didn't come because they
35:55
didn't feel safe for a while, maybe they could
35:58
have elected to have remote for a little while
36:01
until they were ready to come back in person.
36:06
Yeah, I'm glad you're bringing that up. That
36:10
would be a nice thing to offer. It would be a
36:12
nice thing to offer, even if it were just like
36:14
once a month, remote tutoring. Yeah, maybe that's
36:19
an area we can grow as a program, to see how
36:21
we can be more accessible and more creative in
36:24
times when people may not feel safe leaving their
36:26
houses. And have y 'all been impacted by any
36:45
positive community sentiment? Oh, absolutely.
36:48
Absolutely. I mean, in so many ways. I think...
37:01
I think all of the volunteers who work here work
37:06
here because they want to contribute to making
37:09
people feel welcome and feel safe. And I think
37:13
that all of the students who come here also really
37:17
contribute to that because they're coming in
37:20
and they're helping their fellow students feel
37:23
safe. There's always safety in numbers and safety
37:28
in camaraderie. What impact do y 'all have on
37:51
our community the impact of the Multicultural
37:54
Service Center? A small but real impact. I measure
38:03
our impact in three ways. One is, you know, students
38:12
who feel comfortable enough to sign up for the
38:17
Citizenship exam. And we have a few of those.
38:20
There are two students this fall who are ready.
38:26
And by the same metric, I could say I measure
38:29
our impact in students who move up levels at
38:32
SPSCC classes. A lot of our students are taking
38:35
English classes at SPSCC and come here for conversation
38:38
practice and homework help. But I think a more
38:44
important metric is I measure our impact by how
38:48
often people return. And most of the people who
38:53
study with us are people who come again and again.
38:57
I always feel sad when somebody starts coming
38:59
and then they don't come back, which happens.
39:02
But there's a significant group of people who
39:04
come again and again. And I measure our impact
39:09
in smiles. I measure our impact in laughter.
39:13
When I see people smiling and laughing together
39:18
in our space, I can tell they're feeling safe.
39:20
I can tell they're feeling welcomed. And yeah,
39:22
that's our mission too. Awesome. And is that,
39:26
how do you translate that for, like, do you all
39:29
receive any funding from anywhere? Is there any
39:32
kind of thing that you need to report that? Yeah.
39:36
Yeah, we, over the years, have gotten many different
39:39
grants. I manage one of our grants right now.
39:42
We also have done a lot of grassroots fundraising.
39:46
And grassroots fundraising is so important because
39:49
if you give us $10, I'll say thank you and I
39:52
don't have to prove to you. what I'm doing with
39:55
the $10. In terms of grants, for example, one
39:59
of our grants comes from Washington New Americans,
40:05
which is an organization that supports citizenship
40:09
preparation here in Washington. So that's the
40:13
grant I manage, and it's the one I know the most
40:15
about. So yeah, I keep track of the number of
40:18
people studying for citizenship with us, the
40:20
number of hours that we spend doing citizenship
40:23
tutoring. And, yeah, the people who eventually
40:26
apply for citizenship. So, yeah, those are the
40:31
metrics that we use for that particular grant.
40:34
Awesome. Well, thank you. Thank you. When are
40:45
your meetings? When are your language groups
40:50
and your citizenship classes? When are they?
40:52
Mondays and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p .m. Okay.
40:56
All right. And y 'all come around through the
40:59
side gate down the steps. Yep, we're in the YWCA
41:04
basement. So, yeah, the gate between the main
41:11
building and the Friendship Hall will always
41:13
be open during those time slots. You come through
41:16
the gate and you turn right, just follow the
41:19
yellow signs, and then you'll come down several
41:22
steps to the basement door. Awesome. That's where
41:24
we are. Thank you. What is the process to get
41:45
into the tutoring or the citizenship prep group?
41:51
What is the process to get into the English tutoring
41:55
or citizenship prep group? What is the step process?
42:01
How do you get involved in that? Come in our
42:04
door. Yeah. Come in our door. It's like a walk
42:07
-in. Literally. It's a walk -in group. This group
42:12
is... designed intentionally to be really low
42:14
barriers at this point um you know and that's
42:19
that's got pros and cons but currently the way
42:21
the program runs is yeah we're a drop -in program
42:24
you come in um I'll write down your name and
42:28
your phone number and a few details about you
42:31
but um I'm not gonna ask you for your address
42:35
I'm not gonna ask you you know I'm certainly
42:38
not gonna ask you about your immigration status..
42:40
um, It doesn't cost anything. And you come when
42:46
you can. It's a drop -in group. It's a drop -in
42:51
community tutoring. So how does one become a
43:08
volunteer? What does that look like? Let me look
43:12
up our contact number to make sure I get it right.
43:16
Okay, so there are two ways to become a volunteer.
43:19
One, literally just walk in. Somebody did that
43:22
last night. I went to open our door at 5 .55
43:26
and the person was standing in the driveway and
43:29
said, like, I saw your website. I'm interested
43:32
in learning more. You can literally drop in Mondays
43:36
and Thursdays, 6 to 8. You can also call us at
43:40
360 -972 -7799. Again, that's 360 -972 -7799.
43:51
Leave me a voicemail message with your name and
43:52
your number, and I'll get back to you. You can
43:55
also email us at mscss -pm at outlook .com. So
44:02
that's Multicultural Service Center of South
44:04
Sound slash Program Manager is what that acronym
44:08
stands for. But it's mscss -pm at outlook .com.
44:13
Send us an email. Yeah, let us know you're interested
44:19
and come in and learn a little bit more. Our
44:21
program will be for you if you're flexible, if
44:26
you are willing to learn how to say hi and goodnight
44:32
in Chinese and maybe learn a nursery rhyme in
44:35
Russian and maybe play with plastic animals with
44:39
people or maybe study boring but important civics
44:44
questions. If you're a good listener. If you
44:49
yourself are an immigrant and have been through
44:51
this yourself, if you have family or loved ones
44:55
who are immigrants, and if you care, if you're
45:04
looking to make more connections with the community,
45:08
if you just want to get to know some more new
45:10
people and have a structured way to hang out
45:13
with nice people, come on in. think it's important
45:31
for volunteers if you're if you're listening
45:33
to this and you want to volunteer come talk to
45:36
us we would love to have you we need some more
45:39
volunteers right now but I want to be mindful
45:42
about how you show up. I want you to be mindful
45:44
about how you show up. Some of the folks who come
45:49
and volunteer here, or who come to explore volunteering,
45:52
come here with a huge amount of anger and indignation
45:58
and pain. And that's so understandable. Our country
46:01
is falling apart. I feel that too. I want to
46:07
call attention right now to the fact that people's
46:13
culture matters and traditions matter. And, you
46:18
know, we don't want to whitewash, so to speak.
46:23
And then that gets into race. But right now,
46:27
mostly... what we're dealing with here is cultural.
46:30
You're the Multicultural.. Yeah.. Service Center.
46:34
You provide services and you are servicing the
46:38
Multiculturalness, right, um and so we want to
46:42
also pay respect that people where they come
46:48
from matters you know, and then we come into the
46:52
United states of America and we want to learn
46:53
English so that we can, you know, get through all
46:58
of our we're going to become American citizens
47:01
perhaps, right and you know, but we also want to
47:06
honor our own background. The best volunteers
47:22
come here and they're able to come here with
47:26
an attitude of calm, with a with an attitude of
47:33
humor and they're not coming in here desperate
47:40
to fix something and desperate to, um, desperate
47:45
to help somebody that desperation and that sense
47:49
of urgency, which if you've studied white supremacy
47:52
cultural you'll understand, is a hallmark of white
47:55
supremacy culture, can be a double -edged sword.
47:59
It can get you off your butt and in here volunteering,
48:03
getting involved and that's wonderful, but it
48:06
can also, I know in my personal case, sometimes
48:09
it can get me to try too hard to help, and to
48:13
help in a way that can be overbearing and sort
48:16
of using the immigrant students who are here
48:19
as a way to sort of assuage my own guilt. I think
48:23
we've got to be conscious that that, too, can
48:26
be sort of an adverse reaction to our current
48:30
oppressive kind of cultural moment. If you want
48:36
to come in here and volunteer, please, please,
48:40
please go on a walk first. Talk to your therapist
48:43
first. Meet up with other less impacted friends
48:47
first and gripe about all the awful stuff that's
48:50
going on. And come in here in as stable a place
48:56
as you can. Our tutors are wonderful. They come
49:00
in here with a relaxed attitude. They don't correct
49:09
every mistake that students make. They come in
49:14
here with a smile on their face, willing to maybe
49:18
learn a silly poem in their student's first language.
49:21
And mostly, they come in here able to quiet down
49:25
and listen, because the best thing you can do
49:27
for a language learner is talk a bit, share a
49:31
bit, correct a little bit, but also just sit
49:35
back and listen. Sit back and listen as they
49:37
talk, as they practice. Give them that space
49:40
to be vulnerable as much as they want to. And
49:43
you've got to bring a lot of grace in here, both
49:47
as a student and a volunteer. And so, yeah, we
49:55
have so much wonderful community support from
49:58
people whose hearts are breaking, but who bring
50:03
a centeredness and a mindfulness into this space.
50:09
And I'm talking about students. as well as tutors.
50:12
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. That's
50:15
some really good insight. So how can people donate?
50:32
You can donate on our website. Our website is
50:36
mscss .org. Yeah, donate on our website, or in
50:42
a pinch you can walk in and give me cash or a
50:46
check. But yeah, every donation is so helpful.
50:50
We are a teeny weeny weeny non -profit. We pay
50:54
me, we pay rent, we pay for supplies. And yeah,
51:00
every donation is something that we don't have
51:05
to write a grant report to get. Awesome. Well,
51:08
thank you so much. And is there anything else
51:25
you would like to share? I think that's it. Thank
51:31
you. All right. Thank you so much, Ellie. Yeah,
51:34
absolutely. It was so nice to finally interview
51:47
our downstairs neighbor at the YWCA building
51:50
located at 220 Union Avenue Southeast in downtown
51:54
Olympia. The Multicultural Service Center of
51:58
South Sound hosts their tutoring groups on Mondays
52:01
and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p .m. weekly and are
52:05
open to anyone. If you would like to reach out,
52:08
please call 360 -972 -7799. You can contact by
52:16
email with mscss -pm at outlook .com. You can
52:25
learn more or donate or volunteer by visiting
52:29
mscss .org or just showing up. That's it for
52:42
today's Resource Report produced by Pathways
52:45
to Agency. At Pathways to Agency, we are driven
52:49
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52:51
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52:54
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53:00
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53:04
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53:11
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53:42
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