Programs

Winter Programs

We concluded our Winter programs this month and are so proud of all the students who participated in our programs this session. To celebrate the hard work of all of our students, we hosted a pizza party on the last day of our Arabic program and also handed out goody bags and kuffiyahs to our dabka, cooking, soccer, basketball, and tutoring students. We’d like to extend a special thank you to not only our program parents and students, but also our wonderful program staff who work hard to make sure our programs are running smoothly and constantly improving.

We want to give a shoutout to our Girls Advanced Dabka group, who performed at a Mom & Daughter cultural event at the Academy of Greatness and Excellence and did a wonderful job! Great job to our advanced girls and to their amazing instructor, Eman.

Registration for our Spring 2023 session is now open on our website. We will begin after Ramadan on Monday, April 24 for anyone interested in registering. We look forward to seeing you in the Spring!

Palestine Education

We are grateful for the students who spent the last 10 weeks learning about Palestinian history, culture, struggle, and how to situate Palestine in larger social justice contexts. We are hopeful that these courses are not the end of their journey to work towards a free Palestine, but just the beginning! Please find some of the testimonials from both of our classes, Freedom is the Future, and HOPE.

Advocacy and Community Engagement Team

We graduated our third cohort of our Advocacy and Community Engagement team when we met for the last time this month as we wrapped up our 6-month program! All participants received a certificate of completion for their dedication in learning about social justice, personal and professional development, and activism and community organizing.

Events Workshop Wednesday

This month, we hosted another Self Care and Empowerment Workshop for new mothers. This time Aya Mustafa focused on Children’s nutrition, Dr. Naglaa Rizk (GYN) shared about mother’s physical health postpartum, Islam Mosleh showed how to get back into shape and Marseel Kamel discussed various doula services.

Hosting a workshop gives new mothers in our area the opportunity to connect with one another while learning something new about women’s health, childcare, and motherhood. We look forward to hosting more workshops like this in the future! There were 11 people who attended this workshop in person and 1 person who attended it online.

Our Book Club met to discuss Susan Abulhawa’s novel Mornings in Jenin. We had 3 people attend in person and 1 person on zoom. We are working on creating a collaborative space where ideas and thoughts can be shared and built upon.

Women’s Brunch

This month was all about healthy eating and women’s fitness. We had two amazing speakers from Ohio, Lamees Lahham and Salma Alsibai, give a wonderful presentation about their new program, that focuses on nutritional tips about eating healthy during Ramadan! We also had a great fitness session with personal trainer Eslam Mosleh! We had a total of 15 women in attendance.

Young Adults Iftar

Our Young Adults Iftar this year was a night to remember! This year we worked with Islamic Relief to raise $16,000 for Palestine. We kicked off the evening with icebreakers and introductions. We broke our fasts with dates and delicious food. For the remainder of the night we engaged in various activities such as calligraphy making, family feud, taking pictures using our backdrop and dipping fruit and marshmallows in a chocolate fountain brought over by Chocolate House. With a turnout of around 70, PACC hall was buzzing with laughter and excitement from our guests!