February 2025
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.
-Mark Twain
My schedule and the world’s schedule. My time table and well, everyone else’s. I am a planner but I have learned over the years of planning multiple projects that the world does not work according to my schedule. When I was young, I fussed and tried to force my schedule on everyone but it led to much frustration and conflicts in my life. But now in my mature years, I have learned to be more patient, allowing events to unfold or people to be themselves while I change my schedule, my plans, and my expectations. Sometimes, it works out better; other times, it never happens. Yet under both circumstances, my stress level has been more manageable. For this, I am extremely grateful.
I am happy to say that waiting for our spring activities to unfold has worked in our favor. With all the changes under the new administration, our immigrant population in Aurora will be adversely affected. But how? This is where I am hoping that our new Youth Team leader, Tsion Hundie will be able to work with participants to help our community. The spring project of 2025 will explore the following questions:
What type of issues are most urgent in Aurora given all the changes under the new administration?
What resources do children of immigrant families need to know or have access to in order to help their parents?
Who do we connect with to get this important information?
How do we reach out to the larger immigrant families in Aurora so we can share this information?
What type of communication is most effective for immigrant families? Where should this information be posted?
If we had jumped into our spring project at the beginning of January, we would not have seen the drastic measures under Trump. Now realizing how our community will be impacted just within two weeks, we can take small steps to help our immigrant families to navigate around the change. We will have 4 more years of new policies and we want to make sure that we can protect our youth and their families at the local level.
Given the limits of our resources, are we taking on too much? Maybe … but if we need to partner with other organizations or city, I am all for working together to fight the challenges that lie before us. We will need to be united to combat the new administration’s attempt to attack our immigrant families in Aurora.
Sam Joo
CEO and Founder
January 31, 2025