emma-f

[emma-f]

Restoration Job Training at Partner in Employment

Hello! My name is Emma Freeman, I am interning with Partner in Employment. Partner in Employment (PIE) is a non-profit working to support newly arrived immigrants and refugees with housing support and employment opportunities through programs like English as a second language, rent support, and various job training programs that connect participants to unionized and higher paying jobs.

In about a week, I will be helping to facilitate the Restoration Job Training program. Many of the applicants are children of parents who are already clients of PIE and a team of 10-15 are selected each season to do restoration work such as invasive plant removal, mulching, and planting. All while environmental education and general job application skills are interwoven into the program.

For my capstone research, I will conduct a case study on how restoration work impacts migrant's connection to nature and how art can be used to express these connections. I plan to use surveys to track change over time, interviews to capture reflections, and to do a literature review of the art pieces that participants create in the lesson I lead.

Something interesting about the Restoration Job Training Program specifically is that it applies for and receives different grants than the other job training and assistance programs. This means that while all of the work of PIE is connected, the Restoration team is a little more independent and can particularize funding based on the specific needs of our program. Our funding also allows us to pay our restoration crew for their time through stipends. This is uncommon for volunteer environmental work in general, but I think it is really important to be able to both compensate job trainees for their labor, and offer some financial stability during the job training rather than only after they successfully find employment after it's over. The labor of migrants is heavily exploited in the United States, and I really appreciate PIE's dedication to challenging that status quo at every level.

One challenge I have faced so far in the preparation of my study and lesson plan is not speaking Dari/Farsi or Pashto. Luckily I have two coworkers who together speak both and are kind enough to help me translate my interview/survey questions and make sure that the concepts translate well.

PROMPT: what do you know about the root causes of migration? how do they tie into the environment? how does economic exploitation of a country manifest as environmental exploitation/degradation?

One more thing I wanna say: a lot of work places are just now giving their employees training on what to do if ICE raids their workplace in order to protect their coworkers. If your internship has not already provided this, please ask your supervisor if they have training on this somewhere and if they can provide it for everyone.

Kubota Gardens during a winter site visit to the PIE restoration plot. Some of the area is in phase 1 restoration and still has invasive ivy and holly to be removed like in photo 1, and some of the area is in stage 2 where the ground is mostly covered in native plants and requires maintenance.