Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: The American immigrant show with Dr. Spert is a space where immigrant stories become American stories, challenges become inspiration, and real life experiences fuel, hope, opportunity and transformation. This show isn't just about surviving immigration. It's about thriving, contributing and redefining what it means to be an American.
Welcome to the American immigrant show. I'm Dr. Dennis Burke. The immigrant story in America is often told through individual determination.
Someone arrives, works hard, learns the system and builds a new life.
But behind every successful trend position are institutions, educators, employers, community organizers, and practical systems that can either open doors or make an already difficult journey harder. My guest today is Luis L. Yafori, founder of Diversified Ed Consulting, a woman oriented firm supporting refugee newcomers and immigrant communities through direct services, workforce integration, multilingual education, professional learning and large scale protection Project strategy. Before launching Diversify Ed, Luisa spent 20 years as a Newcomer classroom teacher and later expanded her work across schools, nonprofits, public agencies and community programs.
Louise has worked alongside forcibly displaced individuals from 116 countries across four continents. And her work is grounded in a simple but important what does it actually take to help people move from arrival to beginning participation and opportunity?
Louise, welcome to the American Immigrant Show.
I am very delighted to have you.
And now you're very welcome. And I have a series of questions that the audience would like me to ask you about your work and your students and about the refugees that you help. Because I think you do very noble worked.
So you spent 20 years working directly with Newcomer students before building Diversified.
What did the classroom teach you about the real barriers Newcomers face after arrival?
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Thank you. That's a good question. I spent 10 years in the classroom, all in a refugee magnet school. And I think for me, the thing that stood out the most is that it's really more about systems when we're talking about barriers. So I think what we tend to do as humans is attach the idea of barriers to a person. And it's sort of an inherent thing that they come with. They don't speak English, they don't have speaking status, they don't have stable housing.
The thing is, when we're looking at young children, it becomes really hard to put that on the child, right? We're naturally more open minded, we're more solution seeking. We look beyond the person and start thinking what is behind the reduced language access? What is behind the slowed immigration status? What is behind the challenges that prevent upward mobility. It becomes less about barriers attached to a human and more about barriers that are systemic, systematic problems. They're bigger than you or me or the student that we have in front of us or their parent or family member that does a few things in the world of education. I think what that's helped do is one, a lot of schools, schools and school systems have shifted to what we call a two gen approach, a two generation or multi generation.
And that means that we're not just supporting individual students, right? We're supporting the family members that they live with. Their parents, their older siblings, their younger siblings. Many folks, as we know, live in multi generational homes, so their grandparents. When we're supporting the whole family, we know that we have better, longer lasting impact. And the second thing I think that that's shifted is that it's put more emphasis on wraparound systems. We know that a whole child, when we're working in education, when they have healthy teeth, when they know that they have a stable place to lay their head at night, when they know that there's food consistency, then we know that they're coming to school ready to learn. And we know that their home is a more stable place and that their parents are also then have better opportunities, better chances to fully integrate into the community.
So for me, looking back, I think that biggest aha was removing the barriers from being an individual have or have not quality to looking at barriers as larger systemic issues and then thinking creatively about what we do next, how we work as a community to move beyond that.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: And so, Luis, the people that you work with, do they already have family or contacts in the United States beyond your resources?
And if so, do they face all of the same challenges other individuals face with getting through the immigration barriers?
[00:06:36] Speaker B: I'm laughing, Dennis, not because this is a silly question. I'm laughing because the only consistent in any of this is that it's inconsistent.
There's no two stories. There's no two families or circumstances that are the same. And for as long as I've been in this work, I continue to be surprised every single day.
Truly, every situation is different. We have, for example, unaccompanied refugee minors that are in the United States have very often traveled by themselves to a new country because their parents may no longer be living or may not be in a position to travel and they are unsafe or maybe need urgency medical care. So we have a demographic that operates in that sort of way. We have families that are here and are now moving through the immigration system.
Many of our families are refugee families, meaning that they were forcibly displaced from their homes. They are the most threat, thoroughly vetted of all immigrant populations. They have come legally through a very long strenuous pathway that has included biometrics and background screening and lots of hurdles to get here. And now in the current dynamic, there are more hurdles. So the game is changing, the rules are changing, the goal posts are changing, and everyone's situation is very different. And we're also running into reduced legal access, reduced legal aid, reduced funding to support those types of things. So it's a very up and down roller coaster for every family who is involved in the process. And if that is a student visa or a work visa, or you're moving through a refugee or unaccompanied refugee minor pathway or other, everybody's situation is very unique.
[00:08:25] Speaker A: So could you, or would you describe yourself almost like an air traffic controller in a very wild and disorderly infrastructure of a sort? Because there's a lot of craziness. You know, you're dealing with government agencies, you're dealing with cultural issues, you're dealing with many different factors, and you're trying to keep order in a fairly wild west process, would you say?
[00:08:54] Speaker B: I think as a overarching umbrella, we might say that. But honestly, I think more on the ground at an organizational level, I have the honor of working alongside some of the most well run, well functioning organizations that are fully equipped to move through, through these hurdles and jump through all of the ups and downs, even with the chaos that goes on above. And I think what that chaos has actually done is brought a lot of us closer together in a more cohesive solidarity. We are sharing more resources. We're referring folks in and amongst ourselves. We're closing the gaps on a local, small level. And I think there's a lot to be said.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: And for organizations and communities, you know, working, doing the work that you do, what would you say is one mistake that comes from designing programs for people instead of designing them with people?
[00:10:05] Speaker B: That's a great question. I think first of all, a lot of us get into the work of social good because we want to create impact, we want to be helpful to humanity as a whole. The challenge in that is that it feels really good. And so we can be drawn into that feeling good. Now, when we hold to that feeling good, and we also are sitting in a position of power and privilege, what we can run into is a gray zone of saviorism, and that centers ourselves, right? And so sometimes we can make really well intended decisions for a group of people, but it's not actually what they need because we're thinking from our cultural frames of reference. And so part of the deeper work that goes on with a lot of us in this field is decentering ourselves to reposition community leaders, folks from within. And it requires us to pause and be active listeners. When we start to become active listeners and shift programming and dynamics so that they are what a community actually wants and needs. That's when we create buy in. That's when folks are truly involved and that's when real change starts to happen.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: And so up till this moment in time, I had not heard of this type of work that you do. I recognize you're very skilled and have a high level expertise in this area area. I want to hear more about it, but for now I have to take a short break and we'll be right back.
[00:11:36] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Are we good?
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Julio.
[00:12:02] Speaker C: Search for NOW Media Television on the App Store or Google Play Store. Download our free app and enjoy live streaming of all NOW Media TV channels along with on demand content anytime, anywhere. NOW Media Television, the first bilingual media network.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome back to the American Immigrant Show.
Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand, anytime you like.
Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move.
Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv.
from business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock. Ready whenever you are.
Welcome back to the American Immigrant Show. I am Dr. Dennis Burke and I'm here with Louise L. Yar Furi, founder of Diversified Consulting.
Louise, before the break we talked about what newcomers need beyond welcome. Now I want to move into one of the most profound practical parts of the immigrant journey, economic mobility.
Diversify ed works directly with refugees. Newcomers on career readiness, financial literacy, workforce integration, mentorship, social enterprises, incubation and employment partnerships.
These are the systems that help people move from survival toward independence, contribution and long term stability.
So I therefore have more questions. Unbelievably so. The question, first question I have now is when a newcomer is ready to enter the workforce, what barriers can prevent skills and experience from translating into employment in the United States?
[00:14:50] Speaker B: That's a big one, Dennis, I think, and you've probably experienced some of this yourself. I think one of the biggest challenges we have is just the credential transfer that skill sets folks had in the home that they had before this one don't always transfer and that is certificates, college degrees, professional organizations, those types of things have a really hard time transferring, especially college credits.
This is complicated for us in a refugee perspective because there's instability in a lot of these folks homes currently ongoing so trying to track down a piece of paper in the middle of a war zone, then of course, if you're fleeing urgently, you're not going back for all of those things. You're taking what you need to take. You're taking a backpack with you. So that's not on your list of important documents. So when you need to retrieve those, it can be very challenging, one, to obtain the document and then two, to be able to have those credits transfer and align to our US Model.
The other thing is that there can sometimes be a cultural skills gap in what's valued here in the US what skill sets are what we would consider those that we aim for, that we strive for, that we hire for. As an example, timeliness is really important to us here in the United States. For much of the rest of the world, being with other people is more important than timeliness. People will always take precedence over time.
So running behind is not unusual and is in fact expected. If you are dealing or speaking with other humans, tomorrow's another day. We'll get there when we get there. People will always take precedence over time. There's an abrupt shift in coming to somewhere like the United States that is very time centric, that is efficiency oriented. And so that dynamic can be an adjustment. And it is part of the cultural learning curve that folks encounter or should encounter as they come into the United States.
[00:16:56] Speaker A: And so I believe I understand everything that you're talking about, because in other settings, I ran into experiences where people are coming here on a legal visa, but they have habits formed from their home country, they have cultural beliefs, and their understanding of how the American system works is highly deficient in comparison to what they're accustomed to. And their ability to adapt is another problem, because they don't adapt quickly. They adapt slowly. They don't. They may have never had a Starbucks in their neighborhood back home, and now you have Starbucks everywhere you go. And the whole experience is almost electric. Shocking, you know, if that's even a way to put it.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Absolutely, that's a great way to put it. It is part of that culture shock. And when you're navigating a new life and you're also navigating culture shock. And what I find interesting, actually, culture shock they've shown mirrors the grief cycle. You actually move through the phases of culture shock as you would the grief cycle. There's that honeymoon, everything's rosy and sunshiny. And then you start to negotiate, and then you can start to feel down as you're accepting it. And then you start to move through that sticky tough part in most cases as we move toward integration. But those are real and it's valid to talk about those in a context of integration.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: I noticed that your work includes mentorship, social enterprise incubation, and employment partnerships. What makes those relationships more effective than simply giving someone of job openings?
[00:18:50] Speaker B: We recently updated our logo actually to include a fish, because we kept saying, we've got to teach people to fish. We've got to teach people to fish.
Because if, if we're just giving fish, that's only going so far. If we are walking alongside someone and doing the hard thing, not only can they then go on to do it themselves, but they can go on and teach others.
And that is how we build communities. That's how we move things faster, especially in time frames like this. Resources in our world are extremely limited. Human resources are extremely limited. Folks in our world of what we do are largely overworked. We all have a lot of client needs and a lot of hopes that we would like to see in our communities. And we can't, we can't achieve all of that. But if we can walk alongside folks and achieving a goal and they can do it themselves and they can teach someone else, we can move forward more quickly.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: And so for American employers who want to hire and retain refugee or immigrant talent, what should they understand about creating a workplace where people can actually succeed?
[00:20:15] Speaker B: First, I think there's an understanding of what it means to hire an immigrant. There are certainly those who will need an immigration assistance through their employer. They're looking to do that through an employer.
However, the vast majority of immigrants in the workforce are fully legal to work, first of all, and do not need any kind of support in that pathway.
The pushback that we get right away from most employers is, oh, gosh, am I going to have to do the immigration pathway for this person? And by and large, the answer is no. If a person is in the United States on refugee status, for example, they are illegal to work. If they are here on humanitarian parole, which includes a lot of our families from Afghanistan or Iraq, they are legal to work.
So that's one misconception that I'd really love to see dismantled because it opens a lot more doors right away.
The other piece is just understanding.
It sounds so simple. But learning a new language has nothing to do with intellect, capacity, skill sets, background, professional experience. And sometimes when we see a person actively learning a new language, we put a pause on what we can expect or ask out of them.
Immigrants are absolutely our largest untapped resource in America.
And I think if employers can latch onto that and they can see all of those skill sets we have on our roster right now, folks that are working at Amazon and Walmart and Safeway and thank goodness we're, we're excited they're employed, that's amazing. But these same folks are also lawyers, business owners, teachers, accountants in their former lives in another country. And those degrees didn't necessarily transfer. But if we can look at that person and say, oh, you've been a tax advisor for 20 years and you're working at this place, how can we best use those skill sets even in this capacity? How can we plug that in and put that to work so that we can maximize your potential wherever you're working?
[00:22:38] Speaker A: And would you say that the people that you're helping by and large have pretty good English or maybe no English when they first come here?
[00:22:49] Speaker B: It's all over the map.
Some are just learning, they're learning the English alphabets, which is not in any way a dismissive sort of comment. It's a remarkable thing to be multilingual. That's an asset in itself.
But they're still in that learning process. And then we have folks who have gone to college in English in the country that they came from. We have folks whose home language is English from parts of Africa or that is the language of their country. They have an accent, but it's the accent in English in their country.
So we really have a full range of folks with all kinds of language acquisitions.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: I'm absolutely fascinated and intrigued, but we do have to take another short break and I'd love to pick up the communication with you when we get right back. Okay,
[00:24:18] Speaker C: Search for NOW Media Television on the App Store or Google Play Store. Download our free app and enjoy live streaming of all NOW Media TV channels along with on demand content anytime, anywhere. Now Media Television, the first bilingual media network.
[00:24:51] Speaker A: Welcome back to the American Immigrant Show. We are continuing our conversation with Louise L. Yafouri.
Her work is not limited to direct services.
Diversified also leads large scale projects and professional learning from schools, non profits, public health organizations and agencies that need to serve culturally and linguistically diverse communities more effectively.
That means the challenge is not only helping newcomers navigate systems, it is also helping system systems become better prepared to understand the people they serve. In this segment, we are talking about leadership capacity, trauma, responsive practice, and what it takes to coordinate meaningful work across multiple organizations.
I have several more questions to ask Louise and let's get started.
Welcome back, Louise. I hope you had a little chance to rest there and you work, I understand across education, health, workforce development, government and nonprofit settings.
What makes cross sector collaboration especially difficult in immigrant and refugee integration work.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: I think before we get to the difficulty, maybe taking a moment to just celebrate its necessity and how it works really well.
I came into Newcomer education very early on.
Obviously there were pioneers before us, but when Newcomer education was really becoming, I think, meaning that we're taking and working with very recently arrived folks in a concentrated setting.
And I came on board a school Place Bridge Academy in its inaugural year. And I had, we had the most fearless, unapologetic leadership that fought for wraparound services, that fought for the whole family, that fought for two generational education before that was even a term that we used to. And I would see in that context teachers, the Sibira Stashes and Elizabeth Parks of the world that would ride school buses home with students to reconnect them to their parents because the family was not aware familiar with that system yet, they would volunteer on their weekends to help teach the parents English.
At the school we had a dental clinic, an eye clinic, all happening, a medical clinic, eventually food that students could take home over the weekends. And this is what first made it so evident to me that we, we can't exist in a silo. Everything exists if it's done well as part of an organism. And that was functioning as that.
What makes that harder, I think as we move outward into communities, number one is the context. It's a lot of work, it's a lot of motion going on and all of us are doing really, really working really hard to that our I's are crossed and our T's are crossed and our I's are dotted and making sure that we're meeting the client's needs right in front of us. And sometimes that becomes all consuming. There's just not a lot left for reaching out. The other part of that I think that is significant is that there's no clear community wide, statewide, nationwide system for us to communicate with each other.
We're still working in a lot of cases and some really outdated practices for referrals. For example, when a client that we have might need mental health care and I'm going to refer them out, there's a lot of homework that has to go into figuring out where they can go. Because there's not a robust, well developed internalized network that we can look something up and send someone where they need to go. And I think that is the next step. Step in the future is just working to connect all of us. We have the Technology to do it now that we never had before. So I think it's possible and I think that's the next step of what needs to happen to help connect us and desilo some of our activities.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: What does culturally dynamic professional learning need to accomplish beyond simply teaching staff about cultural differences?
[00:29:47] Speaker B: That's a great question. I think a lot of culturally responsive or cultural awareness training that we see touches on the surface level components.
The things that you see behind me here, the flags and the welcome maps and the hellos in different languages are wonderful. That's what can draw people in and make them feel welcome. But it's not culturally responsive practice that's really happening at the surface level. And so what needs to happen in effective culturally responsive trainings is that we're moving through the different layers of culture, the surface level and the subconscious level. And then we're getting down into the unconscious level. This is where the real meat of cultural connection or cultural disconnect happens. And these are, for example, those really big picture items that nobody teaches you about when you're young. You just notice this is the way the world works. We live in the United States in an individualist society. No one says you are living in this way. It's just how you are aware of how things are.
Most other cultures in the world are collectivist and they are in a supportive wraparound environment.
And that's a critical note when we are moving from one culture to another.
So those types of things we have ideas of kinship. For example, what happens when you have aging parents in the home? Is the expectation that they live in or is the expectation that they prefer to live somewhere else on their own? In assisted living, those all fall in those deeper level cultural reference points. Concepts of time. We talked about what timeliness means in the context of the United States versus maybe other countries in the world. You get there when you get there because tomorrow is another day. Those are the layers that can create a lot of havoc, that can create tensions and disconnects with staff or with teachers and students. And those are the places that we really need to settle into an effective culturally responsive program.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: And so when you are managing a large multi agency initiative, how do you keep partners aligned around outcomes without losing the human reality behind the project?
[00:32:11] Speaker B: I hire people who are much better at organizing than I am because that's not my strong suit. Some of us have to be the dreamers and then some of us have to keep other people grounded and organized.
And I have a fantastic right hand person and team that helps to keep me grounded and organized. So that's, number one, find your people.
Number two, I think something that we've initiated that has been successful for us is that we have for our staff, weekly syncs or reports on what's happened and what they've accomplished and where they're spending their time and energy. And a component of that is storytelling. And that is really important to us because data is great. Data tells a story.
But so does the fact that four Afghan women who are driving in a car with our Colombian instructor are trying to learn Spanish because they want to build a connection with her on the way to English class.
Those are stories of people belonging, of people doing the work to fit in, of people feeling like they can be themselves with another person. And that is data as well. And it's important.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: And so what is one capacity gap to repeatedly see in organizations that genuinely want to serve immigrant communities well, but are not yet equipped to do so?
[00:33:38] Speaker B: This is a really strange time and space to be asking that question just because capacity is.
It's everything right now. It's in the financial resources that are allocated to immigrant support. It's in the reduced staffing out of that. It is in the overflow of needs in our community as things like benefits, housing benefits, food benefits, health benefits are all going away. There's much more confusion and there are fewer people to help walk folks through that. So capacity is sort of the name of the game where we are right now. And I'm hopeful that that will reconcile itself in the coming years.
[00:34:26] Speaker A: Louise, I'm so enthused by your energy and excitement for your work and for the passion that you have in helping the people you touch.
We take a small break and be right back.
[00:34:40] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:34:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: Search for NOW Media Television on the App Store or Google Play Store. Download our free app and enjoy live streaming of all NOW Media TV channels along with on demand content anytime, anywhere. NOW Media Television, the first bilingual media network.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Welcome back to the American Immigrant Show.
Stay connected to this show and every NOW Media TV favorite live or on demand anytime you like.
Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and unlock non stop bilingual programming in English and Spanish on the move.
Catch the podcast version at www.nowmedia.tv.
from business and news to lifestyle, culture and beyond, Now Media TV is streaming around the clock.
Ready whenever you are.
Welcome back to the American Immigrant Show. I am Dr. Dennis Burke and my amazing guest is Louise L. Yafoury of Diversified Ed Consulting.
Hello and welcome back.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: Thank you, Dennis.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: For Luis, integration is not about asking newcomers to erase who they are. It's about creating pathways where people can use their skills, strengthen their families, participate economically, connect with community, and contribute to the places they now call home.
My first question in this segment is, after working with forcibly displaced people from 116 countries, how do you define successful integration in a way that goes beyond employment or language acquisition?
[00:37:43] Speaker B: First of all, Dennis, I love that you use the word integration, because a lot of times what we hear are things like assimilation.
And it's an important distinction.
What we're aiming for is, in fact, integration. And I tend to think of this almost like a teeter totter.
What we can do when we're moving into a new space or if we pick up and move to a new country when we come, there are some patterns that we tend to see. One is isolation, where we're moving into only communities that we are comfortable with that we know. We're shopping at supermarkets that are only in our ethnic background. We're only speaking our heritage language. On the other side, we have adoption, where we're leaning all the way into the new culture. We see this a lot with young people especially, right. That we just want to dress the way, eat the way, speak the way, but it's at the expense of the heritage culture. And so what we're aiming for in a successful outcome is integration, where we kind of walk this fine line. We can balance on the teeter totter. We can see the good and the maybe not so good in both. We can be able to toggle and move between the two, and we can have a lot of pride in our ability to navigate both worlds. And what true integration, to me really is, is the idea that our two or more cultures are in fact, compatible. They can live together. It doesn't have to be one or the other. And when we have that cultural integration, then we know. Research science shows us that folks who have achieved that integration, where they can maintain their heritage culture and embrace a new culture, they have better prosocial outcomes, they have better mental health outcomes, physical health outcomes, they have better economic outcomes. That is the goal. That's what we're aiming for.
So I love that you use this word integration. That is, in fact, exactly what we're going for. And it doesn't necessarily have to be just about language or just about economics. It's internally feeling like my two or more cultures can live side by side. They are compatible.
[00:39:57] Speaker A: But I found personally that in order to be able to live successfully in the United States, you don't have really a choice only to embrace the way of life, the culture, and everything that's great about America, while it unfortunately may have to depart from some of your own beliefs or your own culture and things that you grew up with in order to be wholly integrated in the United States,
[00:40:26] Speaker B: agree with that.
And I also think that there is space for holding onto what brings you comfort and joy and wholeness, or at least noticing where and when you need those things and being okay to reach for them if needed.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: And so where do you see the greatest opportunity in this case for businesses to participate more intentionally in immigrant and refugee integration?
[00:41:00] Speaker B: Well, we mentioned having that better understanding of not needing to support folks through a visa pathway. That's important.
Number two, recognizing skill sets that are in front of us, making space and making pathways. We're in an aging, declining workforce. We need workers, and we have a valuable workforce ready to integrate into the economy.
And some folks indeed are, but they're positioned at places that they should be moving with upward economic mobility.
So having a mind for where those skill sets are taking a risk to reach beyond and remembering that that language piece is not the only marker, it's not the only identifier of there's more beyond that, there's more skill sets beyond the language identifier.
And so if we can work more collaboratively with businesses, which is what we really aim to do, building partnerships with businesses over time to be able to place folks appropriately, and then they see, oh, this is a great placement, this is valuable to us, the more that that sort of work is done and gets out. And there are many organizations like ours doing this great kind of work in cities and country, cities and counties all over the United States. So I would recommend looking into what is available in your area, what resettlement organizations, what folks are doing the work, and connect with them, you may be tapping into a really valuable cohort of potential employees.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: So if you could change one thing about the way American institutions approach newcomers integration, what would have the greatest long term impact in your opinion?
[00:42:54] Speaker B: I think it's really just about education and awareness and then creating long term solid pathways for immigrants to move into spaces that are more aligned with their past work or their skill sets. The other big gaping hole, of course, is finding a way to better align credentials overseas, credentials that map with what is expected in the United States economy and how we gauge that in our school systems, in our work, so that there are cleaner pathways for folks who were nurses in Ukraine to be able to move through a second certification here that wouldn't require them to start all over.
And that happens far More often than I'd like to admit. There are many, many folks in our programming that are simply stuck because they are needing to start all over. If they were a barber for 20 years and are now starting over, if they've been a judge and are now not able to participate at all in the legal system system here.
So those kinds of credential hiccups are a massive hurdle that would need an overhaul and would need systemic change on a more national level.
[00:44:19] Speaker A: What do you want viewers of the American Immigrant show to remember about this relationship between belonging, opportunity and the strength of community?
[00:44:34] Speaker B: Belonging is community.
You can't really tease those two apart from each other. You belong and therefore you're part of a community.
And when you have that strength, you have more opportunities that open up to you. Naturally, you're networking in that community.
You're being bolstered by that community. You're finding out about new work opportunities through that community.
And so they have to work together. I think it is incredibly important, I think as a last note, to return to the idea that immigrants are America's greatest untapped resource economically.
An incredibly large number of Fortune 500 CEOs, immigrants, the community most likely to start their own business, immigrants, the fastest growing cohort of new teachers, immigrants. The heart of our service industry, immigrants. We can't do this without that piece of the puzzle.
And when we can really capitalize on that and move folks through to where they really can be exercising their deepest level skill sets and all that they have to offer, we all win. We all win.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: Louise, I notice you have a book off to your side there. Would you like to take a minute and just very, very briefly tell us a bit about the book, what the top main topic is, main theme, and where listeners and viewers could possibly buy the book if in fact it's available for sale?
[00:46:20] Speaker B: Absolutely. This is the third text. This one's called Restoring Students Innate Power. It's a trauma informed text, mostly for teachers that walk through how to best serve newcomer students. Newcomer meaning anyone who is very new to the country or new to the language. And this is a trauma informed model. So what that looks like from a culturally responsive lens. We do dive down into those deepest level cultural reference points and then build trauma informed models from them. This is widely available on ASCD Press, on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, wherever books are found.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: And how do people get in contact with you regarding your services?
If you'd like to share your business phone number, your website, how do people reach you?
[00:47:12] Speaker B: The easiest way to find us is just directly through the website. You can also reach me at louiseiversified World.
We do offer, as you know, direct client service programs. We also do professional development, and we offer online training modules for clients that we build out from scratch that can walk through culturally dynamic programming, trauma responsive models, or whatever else your company may need.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: And so, Louise, very grateful that you came on the American Immigrant show today. Quite honestly, I was not aware of type of work that you do, and I'm glad that you were able to expand upon it, share the insight that you have and the expertise that you have helping the various refugee communities around the world to come to America and integrate with everyday Americans in everyday American society. I think it's fabulous work and I wish you all the best and great success in the future.
[00:48:20] Speaker B: Thanks so much, Dennis. It's a treat to be here today.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: Thank you for being here.
