As a single mom with poor health and limited job prospects, Olive has worried about how she’ll become self-sufficient since arriving in Knoxville as a refugee four years ago. “It’s been hard, but Bridge was helping us for everything that we were going through,” she said. “I really appreciate them.”
Thanks to Bridge Refugee Services’ new Growing Refugees’ Opportunities and Wealth program, or GROW, Olive has been learning new skills she hopes will set her on her path to self-sufficiency. The inaugural GROW course has focused on teaching Bridge clients sewing skills, along with the entrepreneurial acumen needed to use those skills for employment or income-earning opportunities. “What I hope is to have a lot more instruction in a lot of different areas so refugees can become self-employed or more employable with a skill such as sewing, knitting, quilting, mechanics and other skills,” said Kayla Davis, a Preferred Communities Case Manager with Bridge.
Olive, who came to Knoxville in 2019 from Byumba, Rwanda, with her Congolese grandparents and children, said she wanted to join the program as soon as she learned about it. Chronic back pain and other health challenges have been an obstacle to steady employment for her.
“That’s why I want to take the sewing classes,” she said. “If I know how to sew and they teach me how to sew or quilt, I can do it and make some money.” Olive, 35, hopes to develop the skills she learns in the program to grow a home-based business, especially while she’s caring for three children under the age of six. “I feel like I can learn and we can be able to make our own money,” she said. “Maybe in future, I can have my own business.”
Sewing instruction in a group setting is not new to Bridge, but Davis said GROW is a new take on a proven program made possible by funds received in May through a Starbucks Neighborhood Grant that were used to purchase 10 sewing machines. “We wanted to expand on that idea because we knew we had interest there from many of our refugees and we had volunteers who had helped with the original sewing group that we knew were interested again,” she said.
What makes GROW more comprehensive, Davis said, is the inclusion of workshops focused on successful job interviewing techniques, résumé writing, relevant entrepreneurship topics, and health issues all wrapped up with an English language learning component. “Instead of having interpreters in the class, the goal is to speak English the entire time using ESL techniques of demonstration and repetition,” she said. Davis said she hopes participants like Olive who are more advanced in their English-speaking skills will mentor beginners. “I can help others and I can also learn more because I need to learn more English,” Olive said.
Help clients like Olive continue to THRIVE!
The program launched September 9 with participants meeting for two hours twice a month through December 2.
“We know, especially with women, our clients feel socially isolated and may be going through certain things they don’t feel comfortable sharing with just anyone, but if they have a group of close-knit friends already, they are going to hopefully reach out to them and have support,” Davis said.
The social aspect of the program also appealed to Olive. “I’m a single mom with three kids and my grandma is getting older and getting sick easily,” she said. “I really don’t have a lot of friends, so it’s going to be great to meet different people and make friends with them.” The sessions included coffee and the opportunity to get to know one another. “Ultimately, they’ll be building community so our refugees don’t feel socially isolated,” Davis said.
At the end of the program, each graduate kept the sewing machine. Graduates are also walking away with knowledge about how to sell their wares at craft fairs, maker markets, and other vendor-style spaces or market their sewing skills to seek employment at local tailoring companies. Davis is hopeful, “…they will be able to market those skills, whether that’s to make extra money on their own or be employed in an alteration business.”
Additional seed funding for GROW came from the memorial of Phillip Bradbury and First Presbyterian Church donated the instructional space for this pilot, but Davis said donations of fabric, thread, and other sewing supplies are welcome to supplement the needs of the program. Donation needs are updated on Bridge’s social media platforms.
“We will do another beginner class in January and…we will add another class as a continuation of this class,” Davis said.
PHILLIP BRADBURY, 1937-2021
Phillip was a firm believer in the value of organizations such as Bridge that assist immigrants in the process of addressing the many challenges with which they are faced in adapting to life in a new country. Born and educated in the U.K., he, his wife and family of three young children emigrated to the US in 1970. This experience increased his awareness of these challenges. However, he also recognized and was grateful for his good fortune in being recruited for his skills as a nuclear physicist who was not only supported in every way by his American corporate sponsor, but also able to return frequently on vacation to visit his home country and family–advantages that he knew many immigrants do not have.
Even before he came to the US, Phillip had long been sympathetic to immigrants’ needs. Soon after completing college, he and his wife had spent a summer at a United Nations camp in Europe. There, as volunteers, they helped build homes and heard, first-hand, the heart-wrenching stories of those who had fled eastern Europe at the end of World War II, leaving everything, frequently including family and friends, to face a new life filled with uncertainties.
More recently, in the decade before he died, Phillip had served on the Bridge Board of Directors in Knoxville, until unable to continue due to ill health. He would have been pleased to know that donations given in his memory are being used to support the educational goals of this program.