There Are No Strangers Here: Promoting Civic Engagement Among Immigrants

If the mothers of 13-year-old boys have an aversion to idleness, Alicia Veliz is no exception.

“I wish there was something for him to do after school,” Veliz said with a sigh. She was referring to her 13-year-old son, Rodrigo, who stayed at their Gaithersburg townhome while Veliz led Patch on a quick walking tour of parks nearby.

“The only thing for older children is that basketball court. But that’s it,” Veliz said after arriving at the park, looking past the jungle gym’s swing set to a group of youngsters shooting hoops. Another option is a tennis court within her townhome complex. “But it’s usually locked,” Veliz said.

What Veliz, a 47-year-old immigrant from Peru, would like to see is a new, teen-friendly park or community center in walking distance of her home — an idea that could have easily remained an idea if she had not signed up for the Connecting With Your Community workshops at the in Germantown.

Connecting With Your Community is an eight-week series offered for Montgomery County immigrants through Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity, an agency under the county's Office of Community Partnerships. Patricia Larson, Gilchrist’s Upcounty program coordinator, said guest speakers included officers from Montgomery County Police department’s 5th district and Councilman Craig Rice, (D-2nd District), who lives in Germantown.

The series has been offered in Wheaton and will return Upcounty in the spring, Larson said. 

As part of the workshop, Larson said, students were asked to consider something they’d like to change in their community and create a plan for how to make it happen.

The intention is to take civic engagement a step beyond learning how to navigate government, speak better English or pass the U.S. citizenship test. According to Gilchrist Manager Karla Silvestre, the workshops are intended to empower the county’s newcomers to affect positive change where they live.

Veliz, who completed the workshops in December, went with her teen-centric park idea for her project. She’s since learned that some of her neighbors have had similar concerns.

But if she wants her idea to become more than an idea, Veliz said she now knows who to reach — her community’s homeowner’s association leader.

“That’s helped me a lot,” said Veliz. “I know you have to involve your neighbors.”

Nearly one out of three county residents was born in another country, the majority from Asia (38 percent) and Latin America (36 percent), according to data from Maryland’s Department of Planning. Nationwide, the DC-metro region has the fourth largest immigrant population, according to U.S. Department of Homeland Security data. New York, Las Angeles and Miami regions top the list.

But as the immigrant populations grow, so does demand for resources — particularly Upcounty, according to Larson, where seats for citizenship preparation and English classes fill up quickly.

Gilchrist is under the county's executive branch. In two years, Gilchrist’s budget went from $343,570 to its current $181,308, according to Silvestre. Silvestre said Gilchrist is anticipating level funding for 2013.