The mission of New Neighbors Partnership (NNP) is to assist refugee, asylee, and asylum-seeking families as they settle into NY and NJ. NNP strives to help form communities and social connections with local families who can provide emotional, informational, and concrete support. Over this summer, I worked with fellow fellowship recipient Abby Freidel as communications interns for the New Neighbors Partnership. Together, we worked on a myriad of communications projects, such as the organization’s yearly impact report, a communications blueprint, and we led a staff training on motivational interviewing (a foundational skill for all counselors). These projects all contributed to the smooth operating of New Neighbors Partnership, and have hopefully set them up for success and continued growth over the next few years.

As a social work student, we learn that the core values of social work are service, social justice, and dignity, integrity, and compassion for all. Throughout the summer, I feel that I have been utilizing the core values of social work each and every day at New Neighbors Partnership, and learning how to adjust these skills for NNP’s population was an invaluable experience.

Handling social media for a diverse, multilingual population requires a unique set of communication skills. For example, all social media posts need to be translated into at least five other languages (Pashto, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and French). This requires the posts to be written plainly, and the author to have patience as the translation can take time. With social media, the drive is often to post frequently and in a timely manner; when managing a group of volunteers, who understandably have other priorities, this can be difficult to navigate. Additionally, like many others, I felt the challenges of remote work this summer. Staying inside my apartment all day and only meeting my co-workers through Zoom did contribute to a feeling of detachment as I tried to navigate an unfamiliar job.

Over the course of this summer, I gained such a deep respect for refugee and asylee families, as well as the dedication it takes to run a New York-based nonprofit like NNP. Shoshana Akabas, NNP’s founder and executive director, is one of the most amazing women I have had the honor of working with: She is compassionate and considerate of everyone, and is always thinking of ways to expand NNP’s reach and capabilities. She truly embodies the core values of social work and nonprofit management, and I have learned so much from her throughout this experience. Having the support of Shoshana, as well as the amazing women who were my co-workers, helped me to feel comfortable exploring the realm of social media and strategic communications.