monthly newsletter covid relief October 2020
We recognize that many people in our community have gone through economic hardship during this COVID-19 crisis, at PACC we have dedicated our relief efforts on addressing Food Insecurity. Thanks to a grant provided by IRUSA, we were able to hire a temporary part time case manager that has been going through all of our clients that we have acquired through COVID-19 assessing and helping them with their needs. In the month of October we gave between 400 to 600 produce boxes every Tuesday.
PACC Outreach During this month, the PACC Board of Directors have orchestrated three outreach meetings with some of our key partners: Palestinian Village Associations, The United Holy Land Fund and The Islamic Center of Passaic County. These meetings had several goals that were achieved, some of which were updating our valuable partners on what PACC has been up to and reaffirming and recommiting our dedication to serving our community.
census and voter reg
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Our biggest civic engagement effort leading up to October was ensuring that our surrounding communities were fully counted in the 2020 US Census. We focused on informing both our local Arab-American community and all vulnerable communities of color around us about the importance of being counted in the census for social, economic, and political representation. We combined our voter registration drive efforts with all planned events and campaigns that were focused on making sure our communities filled out the 2020 census. We were able to successfully host many events by creating and sustaining a team of 8 to 10 interns, who were properly trained on how to talk about and encourage folks to both fill out the census and register people to vote.We collaborated with various local organizations and elected officials to do so effectively, and hosted events such as weekly ice cream giveaways and a 3 hour long car caravan in our most undercounted areas to get as many families counted by the October 15th deadline.
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programs please note enrollment/number of students is significantly lower than usual due to covid-19 regulations.
arabic We are pleased to be hosting our Arabic Program and Dabke Program for kids. We have 10 students enrolled in our beginner level class, 8 in the intermediate level, and 3 in the advanced level. Our classes are offered both in person and virtually. Most of our students attend in person and 3 students are learning virtually.
dabka
Our Dabke program, previously hosting 100 total students, had to be cut to 10 students per class due to COVID-19 capacity limitations. Our biggest Dabka class is the girl’s intermediate level, which has 10 students.
covid precautions What are we doing to protect our students? We are strictly enforcing all CDC regulations. Parents are required to complete a health and wellness questionnaire before students attend class. Contactless temperature checks and hand sanitizer are applied to each student. Teachers are required to sanitize their classrooms before and after class. During class students have their own supply box, maintain 6 feet distance, and wear a mask.
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events
fall fest
As part of PACC’s efforts to give back to the community in our unprecedented tough times, we hosted a COVID-19 safe and friendly Fall Festival where kids were able to pick and paint pumpkins from a homemade pumpkin patch and/or participate in a hay ride and sack race(s) while we talked to their parents about both the upcoming election and gave out Voter Information Guide booklets as well as encouraging them to fill out our new Community Engagement Needs Survey. The event was very well attended because of the community was in need of a safe and fun way to get together and the information we provided was greatly appreciated . A lot of people have been feeling cooped up and we were able to provide our community with a fun and safe outdoor activity that the whole family could enjoy. The turnout was great and everyone had such an amazing time. From sack races to hayrides and pumpkin picking this was an event that will not be forgotten.
women’s brunch
As part of our commitment to bring the community together, we partnered with Wafa House and have restarted our monthly women’s brunches. It gave women the opportunity to interact with others safely while enjoying some food and learning about ways to protect themselves through self-defense techniques.
community workshops We held two workshops this month, one focusing on Stress Management and the other on Immigration Status during COVID-19. The Stress Management workshop was hosted by WellCare as part of their virtual Health Education presentations, and was helpful for the community as everyone continued to navigate these stressful and unprecedented times. The Immigration workshop centered on addressing that COVID-19 has made many things uncertain for our communities, including immigration status and procedures, and people were able to have all their questions answered and any concerns alleviated in both Arabic and English. We had three guest speakers for this workshop: Hiba B’irat (spoke in Arabic), Lena Kamal and Egi Deromemaj (spoke in English), all expert lawyers in this field. Both were streamed live on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram to be more accessible to the community.
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Creating A Future with Liberation For All: A Virtual Conference In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, PACC’s 2020 Conference was held in a small capacity online on October 15th and 16th (instead of the usual March date). We envisioned this as the prequel to the 2021 March Conference, and the start of many important conversations amongst and beyond Palestinian organizing communities. In response to the current heightened national and local conversations on anti-racism work and coalition building, we decided to center this mini-conference’s theme on the importance of a collective fight for freedom that begins with internal community work and awareness and expands to organizing in solidarity with diverse communities. With almost 60 registrants from across the country and an amazing line up of guest speakers including USCPR’s Celine Qussiny and Ahmad Abuznaid, the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Nadya Tannous, and Adalah Justice Project’s Sandra Tamari, and PACC’s community engagement coordinator Abire Sabbagh, we fostered a space that truly, as our conference title implied, showcased a collective committment to the intersectional liberation of all oppressed peoples.
Marketing campaigns Indigenous Peoples’ Day PACC highlighted the importance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and drew parallels between the indgenous struggles of Native Americans and Palestinians. We created an informative infographic that reached over 1,500 people across social media platforms and reached an additional 2,800 people through our press release.
Olive Harvest in Palestine PACC broke down the significance of the olive harvest season in Palestine with an informative fact-based graphic and several photos and infographics from other sources to highlight the sacred nature of the harvest in regard to Palestinians’ deep connection to land. The graphics reached over 1,000 accounts across platforms.
FOLLOW US ONLINE!!
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WEBSITE: WWW.PACCUSA.ORG Instagram: @PACCUSA FACEBOOK: PALESTINIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY CENTER