FALL 2012 NEWSLETTER

www.americanacc.org

4801 Southside Dr. Louisvile, Ky 40214

502-768-3813

BY DANA DUNCAN

The change of seasons is always a mystery to me. Since my early childhood, I have been fascinated that from one day to the next, trees give us the gift of their multicolored leaves. After several weeks of preparation and in the midst of crisp, fallen leaves we celebrated our annual Fall Festival on Octo-ber 26th.For several months this year we worked with an intensity full of expectations and dreams. Finally we can see and begin to enjoy the results.We have a renovated, expanded building! And from my perspective it looks GREAT!  We need to finish another phase, but for now we are celebrating this stage of completion.  It is a wonderful feel-ing each morning to see the expanded lobby flooded with natural light (saving for posterity the old Dominican seal on the floor), a new elevator, new façade, new conference room and larger offices, a new nursery, and the new entrances, both on Southside and the new “official” entrance off the park-ing lot.  It has been no small undertaking so we celebrate this leg of the renovation journey!This September marked ten years since Americana moved to the former Holy Rosary Academy. It was not an easy transition, for us or for the neighbors. I would like to think that this new, renovated building is a symbol of perseverance, visions, dreams, faith, resilience, and trust.  We are proud to call this address home in South Louisville.Thank you to every single person who worked long, long hours under the intense heat of summer. Thank you to Whittenberg Construction - Pat, Dan, Tom, John - for your helping hands at all times.Thank you to our donors large and small, who share with us the joy of our service to the community.Finally, as you may know, Americana Community Center is always in need of your regular donations.What does this mean? If you can set apart even just $10 dollars per month to support Americana, we will be able to provide 3 days of services in our after school program to one child (3 suppers, 3 days of help with homework, counseling, and extracurricular activities).Please continue to share your passion for Americana with friend and co-workers. Check out our Web site and social media outlets (Facebook & Twitter) for the latest news. And please be sure to visit the center for a tour and see it for yourself. Come and chat with me to share your questions and comments about Americana’s future service to this community. Peace,Edgardo Mansilla

EDITORIAL

By Alex GaughanOn the night of this writing several Americana

staff members, including myself, enjoyed a pre-screening of the highly anticipated film ‘Lin-coln.’ There is a scene wherein “Abe” and two scribes talk on the importance of the times in a person’s life. Time, in this sense, is referring to the challenges of a particular period and a per-son’s particular skill and resolve to meet those challenges.Several months ago another tall, bearded fellow

asked what I do at Americana Community Center. “Oh, I’m just the desk assistant,” I said standing between my esteemed coworkers. “Never reduce yourself to a  just. A job is a job, yours no less important than mine,” the man shot back. Like a child taking advice from his father, I sensed that timeless wisdom was bestowed upon me. Those around could’ve misread my ensuing nasally chuckle as pompous, but I was merely allowing the imaginary shame of desk assistant and irrev-erence for self-dignity to pass through laughter. Then I felt an unfamiliar sort of pride.Feeling uneasy and incapable of sleep later that

night I considered what the man said, I thought of the many responsibilities my position holds, many of which won’t show on any resume, nor in our staff manual: data entry, answering phone calls, responding to email, undoing Internet rout-er hookups, homework help for kids, conversing with members who speak much better Span-ish, French, and Arabic than myself (as I only lay assault on English), and the occasional design

IN OUR TIME

project, like this newsletter. Not to mention the relationships built with children and teens in our after-school program.  Typing this now it’s a bit humorous to think of

Lincoln’s oratory abilities and heralded sense of what is just and right being applied to the tasks of Americana’s front office. Perhaps he truly was best suited for a time much different than now as everything seems to be progressing, recessing, stagnating, and yet on the verge of collapse all at once. Maybe, just as each time has its challeng-es, so too do the people of that time posses the skills needed to navigate them. So while the tasks of Americana’s front desk may not be measured in battleground victories or legislation, there are instances that call for the right person and the right skill at the right time. Two community members approached me re-

cently asking for help with job applications. The first, a former accountant, was applying for a food service job. Another previously worked as an environmental protection officer, and while they would tell you their lives are better here in the United States, there is no doubt that they shoulder the burden of unemployment, and the loss of status, quite severely. In talking to them it became clear they felt the skills acquired prior to arriving in the United States diminished in mean-ing. I sat with these men wondering whether if it is merely luck that certain people are living in a time appropriate for them, or if it is time itself that prepares a person with the skills to overcome.

CONTINUE ON NEXT PAGE

Opportunities to ponder over such questions arise often at a non-profit. After all, our very jobs rely on a system that has failed many who depend on our services. Never the less these men would both say they are lucky as they negotiate challenges impossible to prepare for.Not long after I met these community members, Americana hosted its annual Fall Festival and I tabled

the college readiness booth. I had to think of an activity for the junior high and middle school kids that would get them thinking about their future and college. Love suggested having them write down their goals. So I sat with the children talking careers and college majors. The overwhelming majority wanted to be doctors and the next closest career choice was professional athlete, and I was impressed by their desire to help others even those they do not know.I supported each student in their dreams and admired that they are guided by values Lincoln himself

would applaud. As happy as it makes me to see the children of Americana accomplish their goals, I also appreciate their journey to find it does not require a lengthy degree, outstanding athleticism, or two thirds house majority, to help people, fight for what you believe, and make a difference in your time. As I continue my work in a community that is navigating trails of acculturation and adjustment, I am learning that it is far more valuable to impact what is necessary in the here and now than to use our time for what will be another era’s challenge.

(CONTINUED)

Our work is not possible without the generous support of our funding and program partners. A big thank you to all of our supporters. AT&T Foundation; Bellarmine University; Boy Scouts; Bridges to Tomorrow Initiative; Broadway Baptist Church; Brown-Forman Corporation; Capstone Realty; CATCH Healthy Habits; Catholic Charities of Lou-isville; Center for Nonprofit Excellence; Church of the Epiphany; Corporation for National Community and Community Service (AmeriCorps* VISTA Program); C E & S Foundation; Community Action Partnership; Cralle Foundation; Dare to Care; Every1Reads; Fabricated Metals, LLC; Family Health Centers, Inc.; Fifth Third Bank; GE Employees Community Fund; General Mills Foundation; Gheens Foundation; Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana; Girard’s Hardware; Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels; Hispanic Latino Coalition; Humana Foundation; Internal Revenue Service, James Graham Brown Foundation; Jefferson County Public Schools; Kentuckiana Works; Kentucky Center ArtsReach program; Kentucky Foundation for Women; Kentucky Office for Refu-gees; Kentucky Refugee Ministries; Kosair Charities; Louisville Asset Building Coalition; Louisville Free Public Library; Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government; Louisville Metro Council; Metro United Way; Muham-mad Ali Center; National Center for Family Literacy; Norton Foundation; PNC Bank Foundation; Republic Bank Foundation; Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Ministry Fund; South Louisville Community Ministries; St. Williams Church; Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky; University of Louisville; UPS Foundation; ValuMarket; WHAS Crusade for Children; YMCA.We want to say a special thank you to our funding partners who have awarded grants since our last newsletter: AT&T FoundationBridges to Tomorrow InitiativeBroadway Baptist ChurchBrown-Forman CorporationCralle FoundationChurch of the EpiphanyGheens FoundationHumana Foundation

Honorable Order of Kentucky ColonelsKentucky Foundation for WomenKentucky Latino Education AllianceLouisville Metro Government – External Agency FundPNC Bank FoundationSisters of Charity of Nazareth Ministry FundWal-Mart FoundationWHAS Crusade for Children

GARDEN NARRATIVE 1

By Alex UdisThough I know the plants at the Americana Community Garden are beneficial,and nothing goes to

waste, I hadn’t until recently had the opportunity to witness their use. I had a chance meeting with Ron, Assistant Food Editor for the Courier-Journal, at the Flea Off Market last spring, where I was raising funds for the garden with some of the Kids’ Garden participants. We organized a garden and cooking story about the Americana Community Garden and growers and determined the best way to go about capturing the story would be to bring the gardeners into the kitchen at the Americana to prepare traditional meals from their home countires with what they raised in their garden. These gardeners are fine cooks, but don’t cook by written recipe, more by experience and taste, so it would be quite a challenge for them to simply tell Ron how to make their dishes.

Ron came to Americana in late July and met Ah Pyu, Punya Sapkota, Chuda Adhikari, and Jose-phine Davies. They gave him a tour of their gardens, packed with summer vegetables, identified some of the lesser known plants, posed for photographs, and harvested for the cooking extravaganza.

A large group gathered in the Americana kitchen, immediately lighting the burners, chopping on-ions, and boiling oil. The atmosphere in the kitchen was electric as our community chefs sauteed, chopped, and spiced with uncanny precision and grace. The KentuckianaWorks! youth crew, who worked for me during the most intense hot and dry summer, had already fulfilled their duties but stayed after on this day to help us prepare the meal. Youth workers Melanie Niyonkuru, Kle Po, and Genevieve Fayinesi proved themselves quite fine cooks for their age, if I do say. They helped Ah Pyu prep her dishes and Josephine chop sweet potato vines.

JB

Chuda and Punya cooked Bhutanese vegetable curry. Ah Pyu cooked soya and squash vines and chicken-veg-etable stir fry. Josephine cooked sweet potato greens.

Ron gathered notes to help him put their recipes in print. In the end, the gardeners posed for pictures out-side in their garden plots with their dishes. Everyone’s hard work turned the Americana cafeteria into a grand banquet hall and we all gathered around the table to en-joy recipes from all over the world with many ingredients harvested right in our backyard.

I also had the pleasure of witnessing the fruits of our gar-den on October 21st, which marked the end of the Ne-pali Hindu holiday Dashain. I was invited to the Adhikari’s home to enjoy the festivities. Since the Adhikari’s had prepared a curry dish for the Courier-Journal article I knew what to expect and was excited to taste their cooking again. They cooked mustard greens harvest-ed the day before and strung marigolds grown on the borders of their garden into garlands to decorate the walls and doorways. Wreaths of marigolds are also often placed around the necks of guests to welcome them. It is a holiday quite important for the renewal of communi-ty ties. During this holiday, it is customary for members of the family to visit each other.The younger generation receives blessings from the older generation by what is called tika, a small mixture of rice, yogurt, and vermillion placed on the head of the person being blessed.

The plants grown in the Americana Community Garden go much further than daily subsistence. They are part of the spiritual celebrations of the gardeners.

Having fully experienced the garden, from soil prepa-ration to food preparation, I grow a little closer to the Americana community and its garden each year.

(CONTINUED)

PHOTOS FOR THIS ARTICLE BY ALEX UDIS

By Rachel SlaughterAs a beginning gardener, I was beaming with excitement (and feeling a little anxious) about signing

the agreement for my plot in our community garden. I’d worked soil before and even had some suc-cess growing plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil. However, this was the first time I was going to garden my own plot of land without the guidance of a knowledgeable relative or friend. Without the support of a green thumb, I worried my plot would stand empty or dried up and a bit wimpy next to the other, more experienced gardeners.

My roommates and I started the season with cool season crops: carrots, beets, Swiss chard, peas, and broccoli. We ripped up the cover crop plants that protect soil from winter extremes, and proceed-ed to till some plants back into the soil for extra nutrients. When our plot became nice and flat we began sowing seeds. This is where we hit our first learning curve.

No one in the garden plants in a completely flat bed. All of our gardeners created raised beds out of the soil. Even the gardeners who seemed to have a flat bed don’t really – they had one giant raised bed, distinguishable by the moat around it.

We began to shift our soil to fit in with our garden neighbors and to increase the drainage of our beds. From there we began to re-sow seeds into our newly raised beds. This led to the second thing I learned in the garden this year.

Seeds want to grow. No matter what, they will grow. Spring slowly turned in to summer and I still hadn’t harvested anything from the garden. I decided things must not have grown due to us having re-cently tilled the soil into new mounds. So, we planted over everything, zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and squash. Of course as I was awaiting the arrival of our new seeds I began to notice a bloom in our garden plot. All of the sudden our garden was bursting with chard, beets, carrots, peas, and broccoli. I was elated. I was proudest of our broccoli, which for most of my life I had never seen growing before. Soon the spring crops were in full swing and the summer crops began growing up around them. The dead of summer arrived quickly, which this year meant dry, hot days.

This leads to the third thing I learned in the garden. Water is a very limited resource, therefore you have to be creative to utilize it and retain it most efficiently. I know watering in sunlight is hard on plants because water can burn the plant. I watered at night during the summer, as did many of our interna-tional gardeners. One of the gardeners watering in the evening taught me a valuable lesson. Ali is from Iraq and grew up gardening. He taught me to dig ditches between his rows of plants. Every night he floods the ditches with water. During the night and into the day the water seeps into the mounds that house the roots of his crops, allowing all the water to go directly to the plants that need it. He would always tell me, as I was finishing up watering, “Your plants are still thirsty!” I learned to water more thoroughly and efficiently, although my food forest of a plot didn’t lend itself to water ditches.

To learn more about our community garden contact Alex Udis, alex@americanacc.org.

GARDEN NARRATIVE II

FALL FESTIVAL SPOOKS AND SIGHTSAmericana Community Center celebrated its annual Fall Festival on October 26th. This annual celebration for program participants and their families included many fun games and activities for all ages. Families were invited to dress in costume as part of the celebration. Winners of the cake walk won homemade cupcakes. The always popular game ‘Corn Hole’ attracted numerous guests and is sure to be a staple for future events. Staff, donors, and parents all chipped in for candy giveaways, a college readiness booth, evenhenna tattoos. Many thanks to all who made this such a wonderful event for our families! Thank you to St. Albert Elementary for your costume donations! PHOTOS FOR THIS ARTICLE BY KRISTIN B.

FALL FESTIVAL SPOOKS AND SIGHTSAmericana Community Center celebrated its annual Fall Festival on October 26th. This annual celebration for program participants and their families included many fun games and activities for all ages. Families were invited to dress in costume as part of the celebration. Winners of the cake walk won homemade cupcakes. The always popular game ‘Corn Hole’ attracted numerous guests and is sure to be a staple for future events. Staff, donors, and parents all chipped in for candy giveaways, a college readiness booth, evenhenna tattoos. Many thanks to all who made this such a wonderful event for our families! Thank you to St. Albert Elementary for your costume donations!

By Rachel Slaughter As we begin the 2012-2013 ACC After-School program,

there are many things to get excited about. We are welcoming in three new youth program staff

members as well as a new Creative Arts Coordinator, An-gela Ress, and we announced that Laneisha Beverly (Miss Love) would be promoted to Youth Program Coordinator.Along with new staff we are also unrolling a lot more aca-

demic enrichment that will set our students up for a great school year! We’ll be utilizing Study Island and Success Maker software from JCPS to supplement what our kids are learning in school. These programs provide age-ap-propriate math and literacy activities. We will also offer our teens ACT Prep courses. As in previous years we have JCPS bilingual educators working with our Kindergarten through5th graders with limited English proficiency. We’re leading a big push to improve the academic successes of our kids in school and preparing them to continue their education after high school. The afterschool program is never all work and no play.

We have a programming partnership with CATCH Healthy Habits to engage our K-5th graders in learning about healthy food and lifestyles. The program includes healthy and fun activities and snacks. Our Creative Arts Pro-gram will provide expressive and exciting activities and art projects for all our students. We are also continuing with some of the successful classes we offered over the summer, including a Girls’ Club, Boys’ Club, Grease Cave Bike workshops, and more. There should be something for everyone in our 2012-

2013 after-school program, for participants and volun-teers alike. If you’d like to get involved as a volunteer or donate materials please contact Jared Zarantanello. jared@americanacc.org.

A LOOK AHEAD

By Dana DuncanThe Muhammad Ali Center Council of Students (MACCS) has been

a part of the center’s activities since its opening in 2005. The year-long program for teens focuses on leadership skill development and social justice-oriented community service work. Just fifty high school students from throughout the Louisville Metro area are selected to participate in the program each year. This year a teen from the Americana Community Center was selected to take part in the program.

Hussanatu Kamara, a 16-year-old sophomore at Central High School, is originally from Liberia. She has also attended Americana programs for several years.

Americana youth visited the Muhammad Ali Center last summer at the conclusion of the Civil Rights Film Club, part of Americana’s summer youth programming. The teens were impressed that Ali attend-ed Central High School, a fact that connected the legend’s life to their lives.

Kamara and her fellow students will meet twice a month at the Ali Center for trainings on leadership development, models of practice in serving the community, and how they can develop their own pro-grams to improve the community.

“We expect them to give back,” said Erin Herbert, Education Manager with the Muhammad Ali Cen-ter. Herbert said all the participants will work to develop a service project that will make a difference in our community.

Herbert said having the two Americana teens take part in the program would benefit all involved.“Having these two teens involved will bring not just more diversity to the group, but also more unique

ideas and perspective.”Laneisha Beverly, Youth Program Coordinator at Americana, agreed with Herbert.“This new partnership between Americana and the Ali Center provides them more diversity in their

programs and opens them up to more of the cultures in our community.”

PARTNERSHIP OF CULTURE PURVEYORS

By Rachel SlaughterThis summer ACC offered a two-week Teen Fiberworks

course for girls participating in our Summer Program. As the Teen Fiberworks teacher, I was excited to share my love for fiber arts with the girls. We started the program by making re-usable market bags out of old tie-dyed t-shirts. It turned into a bit of a crash course in using a sewing machine, but I was proud that every girl made her very own bag.

After the first project, the girls decided to focus on hand em-broidery. Each of the girls completed their own embroidery project based on a design found on the blog “Miniature Rhi-no.” Using various embroidered works for inspiration the crew drew their own designs on a piece of fabric. They learned a variety of stitches, including running an daisy, and how to make French knots. The girls all did a great job and one of their works now adorns the wall next to my desk (see photo). The festive bright colors and phrase ”BFF” (Best Friends For-ever) reminds me of the wonderful two weeks I spent stitching with our teen girls!

SUMMER FIBERWORKS

PHOTOS FOR ARTICLES BY DANA D.

By Love BeverlyAmericana Community Center’s summer program provided academic enrichment and recreation.

The teens were introduced to a well-rounded summer curriculum of Digital Music, SPAVA, Girls’ Club, Boys’ Club, Junior Achievement, ESL, Civil Rights Film Club, Grease Cave bike workshop, Teen Fiber Works, and cooking classes, just to name a few. Although we had very busy schedules it was well worth being able to provide opportunities for the teens to experience the positive and supportive role models that helped facilitate all these classes.

We started off planting seeds of peace during the two week long SPAVA classes and ended with a Teen Lounge Party, where we all said our loving goodbyes for the summer. Throughout the summer you could see the peace that was among all the participants in the Teen Program. There were tough days, but we were all able to remain calm and focus on remaining positive and opening our minds to learning new things, students and teachers alike. Some of my most memorable moments were the 1st Annual Girl’s Club Potluck Brunch, the “Snakes & Pranks” movie premiere, and the Civil Rights Film Club trip to the Muhammad Ali Center.

Our children benefitted immensely from the morning ESL program, in partnership with JCPS, and all of our children and teens enjoyed afternoon enrichment activities, such as field trips and arts pro-gramming. Thanks to Dare to Care, our Kids’ Cafe was able to provide breakfast and lunch for children each day of programming.

At the end of the session, staff and youth celebrated with a carnival, which included costumes, games, and a talent show. We look forward to another great summer in 2013! Many thanks to all our partners, volunteers, staff, and families, who made 2012 a summer to remember.

AMERICANA SUMMER PROGRAM

PHOTOS FOR ARTICLES BY DANA D.

By Jared ZarantanelloThe ADMP grew from the need to expand the scope of the Americana Hip Hop Project. The original

project taught the history and socio-political meaning of Hip Hop music and the technical skills needed to create that music. This original program was a great success and led to the creation of entertaining and powerful music by ACC’s very own Self Kuwa (Eric Mbirizi) and Julias (Lahayiloyi Nijimbere).

However, the sounds of Americana cannot be limited to just one musical genre. In our community there exists a truly unique sound mosaic; music and sounds that mirror the international diversity of our community members. The ADMP was created with the intent of recording and sharing those sounds with the world.

Many of the teens in our summer program participated in the summer session of ADMP. Our teens took part in discussions about digital music around the globe and the ways in which many different musical styles are emerging that creatively blend traditional and contemporary sounds. In one dis-cussion group we talked about how Bongo Flava, a contemporary East/Central African urban music style, has historical and cultural roots in traditional African and Middle Eastern music as well as more modern genres such as hip hop, dancehall, soca, reggae and dub.

The ADMP students also got down to work producing a wealth of audio material. They wrote and recorded original material, as well as re-envisioned popular songs from their own specific sound cul-

DIGITAL MUSIC PROJECT

MEDIA LINKSLela and Sania-Anita(Americana Digital Dub)

http://soundcloud.com/americana-music-project/lela-and-sania-anita-americana

Marie Ninamou-Il Avait Les Mots(Americana Digital Dub)http://soundcloud.com/americana-music-project/marie-ninamou-il-avait-les

Pitch Perfect-by Jace Clayton http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/pitch_perfect/

tures. You can find the links to two songs recorded during the summer below. The first song, “Anita,” sung in Kiswahili by Lela and Sania, is a Bongo Flava classic from Tanzania. The second track, Shery-fa’s “Il Avait Les Mots,” is a French pop song that is very popular among music lovers in Francophone West Africa. While the songs were recorded by participants who hail from geographically opposite sides of the African continent, and are sung in two distinct languages, they share striking similarities in sound and technique. Both songs are laden with dance floor-friendly percussion and bass. For both songs, the singers requested to have their voices processed through autotune software, which imparts a strong digital sound to the human voice. The use of autotune has become popular in many contemporary global musical styles and raises many interesting questions and topics about the uses of technology in making music. For a more full explanation about the socio-cultural place of autotune technology see the linked article below.

The ADMP still has recorded material that has work and editing to be done. We hope to continue the project into the school year, giving more of our youth the opportunity to express themselves through music and sound. We also hope to make an effort to reach out to other musicians in our international community to give them the opportunity to record and share their musical talents as well. If you are reading this and are a musician, music lover, or have experience with audio editing software and would like to be involved with the program, please email Jared Zarantonello at jared@americanacc.org.

DIGITAL MUSIC PROJECT

Julius putting together his first DJ performance at Fall Festival. Photo by Jared Z.

By Jared ZarantanelloLayailoyi, known around Americana as “Julias,” has distinguished himself as one of our most mo-

tivated, talented, and delightful youth participants. This summer Julias was employed as one of our garden/grounds keeping crew through a program with Kentuckiana Works. Despite long hours spent beautifying the exterior of Americana under the hot sun, Julias consistently dedicated the remainder of his time volunteering in other areas of our Summer Youth Program. He also participated in the Amer-icana Digital Music Project (ADMP), in which he wrote and produced his own original music tracks and contributed his talents to the creative endeavors of others involved in the project. You can find samples of Julias’ work on the project’s Sound Cloud page link below.

In addition to his musical talents, ACC also enjoyed the fruits of Julias’ passion for cinema. This sum-mer ACC held a screening for the short film “Snakes and Pranks”, which was the result of a filmmaking class offered to ACC youth in spring 2012. Julias won the lead male role in this entertaining short, which was shot on the grounds of Americana with youth program participants and community volun-teers. Julias is a true “Renaissance man,” striving to excel in all aspects of his creative disciplines. He hopes in the future to write, direct, act in, films and produce music to accompany them that exhibit his deeply meaningful understanding of the world.

MEDIA LINKShttp://soundcloud.com/americana-music-project/julias-my-struggle

PARTICIPANT SPOTLIGHT

By Emilie Dyer, Family CoachFor many of the families in our Family Education program, becoming a home owner has long been

a goal. Unfortunately, the savings required for a down payment makes this goal difficult for many to attain due to the financial barriers of living at or below the poverty line. Thanks to the Individual Devel-opment Account (IDA) Program for Home Ownership, administered locally by New Directions Housing Corporation, this dream is now a possibility for many of our families.

Three of our family leaders have decided to participate in this unique savings program, which allows them to save for a down payment on a new home while also participating in monthly educational sem-inars geared towards first-time homebuyers. Family leaders create a savings goal of $500 to $2,000 for a six-month period. After achieving their savings goal and completing the seminars, the IDA program matches their savings goal with an additional $4,000 to contribute to the down payment on their new home.

Our participants have had wonderful experiences with this program, learning about the often-compli-cated home buying process and added expenses of home ownership through the valuable seminars. For many of our families, buying a home can be additionally challenging and stressful because they are not native English speakers and they are often unfamiliar with the laws and practices associated with buying a home in the United States. In coaching sessions with IDA participants, the topic often shifts to clarification about subjects they have discussed in their home buying seminars. Family Lead-ers have asked about finding a realtor, identifying a reputable bank for their mortgage, and the differ-ence between home insurance and a home warranty. As their coach, I am impressed by how much our families learned about the home buying process and am proud of their dedication to making this dream a reality for their families.

Our families began this exciting journey in April and as we enter the fall months all three participants are just a few steps from completing this amazing goal, with a projected closing date for mid- to late October.

“I found a nice brick three bedroom home,” said one family leader, “I’m so happy and I feel so lucky to be able to have a home for my family!”

HOME OWNERSHIP DREAM BECOMING POSSIBILITY

A screen capture of part of NDHC’s financial security information sheet.

Wage Income+ Business Income+ Public & Employee Benefits+ Tax Credits+ Investment Income

= Income

Income- Current Consumption- Debt Payments

= Savings

Savings+ Barrowing+ Public Incentves

= Assets

Americorps Vista Jared Zarantanello recieved letters like this following his presentation on Americana Community Center at the St. Francis School

Program participants shared their thoughts with us duirng Fall Festival

I LIKE AMERICANA BECAUSE...

that ’s where I made friends here. I like that we have different people from different places and cul tures.

You meet people you haven’t met before.

There are lot’s of people who help one another.

The teachers help with our homework and they do their best.