Empowering Women, Building Community
March is Women’s History Month, a time to recognize the contributions of women to history and society. At Hope CommUnity Center (HCC), we are proud to empower women through our programs, including our MOMS program.
MOMS, or Making Ongoing Meaningful Steps, is an educational program that provides basic English and life skills classes for mothers while their children are in school. Through MOMS, we aim to create a safe and supportive environment where women can learn and grow, connect with other women from different cultural backgrounds, and receive emotional support to deal with the challenges of living in a new country.
One of our community members, Lety Bazan, shared her experience with our programs. She moved to the U.S. with her husband and two daughters from Mexico in 2014, and when she came to HCC, she felt like she had found a new family.
“When you leave your country of origin and come to this country, you suffer a kind of disconnection, a kind of mourning. Because everything that identified you, like your work, friends, home, and family have been left behind. And then, you have this kind of mourning. In my case, it was very short because I found out about Hope very soon after I came here. And Hope came to be that thing that I had become detached from: a new family, new friends, reconnecting you with your culture, with people who have your same, let’s say, origin, and thoughts, customs. And then it replaced to a great extent what I had lost, so for me, it was to feel identified again, to recover my identity, and to be me again. That I had always been, but they helped me a little, and I thank Hope.”
Lety participated in several of our programs, including the advisory, ESOL, parenting, and MOMS programs. Through these programs, she learned valuable life skills and connected with other women, which helped her to feel more identified and empowered.
Lety shared that the parenting program, “Mi casa, tu casa,” was a valuable experience for her. It helped her unlearn some of her ideas about parenting and provided her with new strategies and approaches. Additionally, the MOMS program allowed her to reinforce her English skills and learn practical information about everyday life, such as taxes.
Beyond the educational programs, Lety and her family also participated in other HCC programs, such as hosting young people through the Service Learning program and attending the kid’s camp and youth group. These programs provided socializing and cultural exchange opportunities, helping them feel more connected and integrated into the community.
