MAMI Gets Community Foundation Grant To Pilot ‘Refugees Drive to Succeed’ Program May 1, 2006 -- The Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters of Central New York (MAMI) will launch a pilot program to provide driver’s education to culturally isolated, non-English speaking refugees and better enable them to obtain employment, thanks to a $19,625 grant from The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc. MAMI Executive Director Cornelia Brown, PhD, said the program, called “Refugees Drive to Succeed,” would initially target Somali refugees, who come from a country where private individuals usually do not own or drive motor vehicles. “Refugees Drive to Succeed” is a collaborative effort with Oneida County, the Department of Motor Vehicles and Gigliotti’s Driving School, she noted. “This project meets an urgent community need,” Brown said. “When MAMI asked Somali elders what services their community most needed, they answered immediately, ‘to get driver’s licenses.’ They want driver’s licenses in order to get jobs. To earn a license in this country, they must overcome more than a language gap. They must also overcome a cultural gap of regulations, technical know-how and skills. Few people from Somalia have the expertise to coach would-be drivers the way U.S.-born parents coach their children or the way refugees from technologically developed countries coach their compatriots.” MAMI will provide written translations of key DMV terminology, and help facilitate throughout the whole process, from interpreting a class on the learner’s permit to escorting students to the road test. MAMI currently interprets on-site in 15 languages: Arabic, Bosnian, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Dinka, French, Karen (Burma), Krahn (Liberia), Kiswahili, Maay Maay (Somalia), Russian, Somali, Spanish and Vietnamese. MAMI works with hospitals, health care providers, mental health providers, and the criminal justice system to provide interpreting and translation services, Brown said, and now will work with the driving school to tailor training to students of different languages and cultures. The pilot project will provide driver’s education for 30 refugees, she noted, and includes a six-month tracking component to assess the success of refugees to get jobs and get off public assistance. The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties has been an effective force for improving lives and inspiring philanthropy throughout the region since 1952. The Foundation fulfills its mission in five important ways: identifying and prioritizing community needs; building and preserving a pool of charitable capital; raising the capacity of nonprofit organizations to deliver services; promoting a sense of regionalism and shared responsibility for community improvement; and helping donors reach their philanthropic goals by connecting them with charitable needs and opportunities. MAMI is a community-based, non-profit organization that has been recognized state-wide and nationally for its groundbreaking advocacy, training and coordinating in providing trained interpreters for the medical and legal communities, and the people they help who lack proficiency in English. Back to Main News Page