Board Of Aldermen - Minutes - 3/21/2016 - P5
Special Board of Aldermen Meeting Page 5
March 21, 2016
if we have the most educated immigrants then how come they don’t stay? How come the people are leaving
and New Hampshire has 2,000 unfilled high-tech jobs right now? What is wrong? That does not paint a good
picture. It means my daughter will go live in another state after she graduates from college. It means that
educated diverse people who can create 2.5 jobs for us will leave too. | think they are leaving because they
don’t feel that they are welcome. Look at us, what color we are; | went to the Chamber of Commerce, | went to
Rotary because | was invited. Look who is there, there are no diverse people there. So what, they don’t have
ideas, they don’t have talents? Or, is it that they feel uncomfortable to invite and talk and ask how you are;
where do you come from or what can you do. That is my point about why OGN is not a charity. We don’t take
this grant for three years and give to poor and unfortunate people who came here or live here for 20 years.
OGN is a project and should sustain 10 years after now and it’s good for the city and restore the cycle of
dependence and start the cycle of contribution. That’s all, thank you.
Ms. Jennifer McCormack, Director, Nashua Public Library
This slide is very aptly titled “Join Us.” | am really proud as the library director to be part of this initiative. I’m
proud to be part of this effort to change our city to make it more welcoming. There are other city services also
involved; the Public Health Department has been involved in this project since the beginning and the schools
are involved on a couple of levels. We are inviting any community leader whether it be elected officials or
anybody watching to come and work with us and at the very least embrace the values that we are talking about
that people that are new to our city no matter where they come from are important contributors and make our
city stronger and better and that we should be welcoming and asking people that are new with a different color
skin or a different language or a kooky way that they wear their hair, what do you have to offer that would make
our community better? If you could join us coalition that would be great. If you can just talk about us verbally
and just offer support that would be fantastic. We would love to hear questions from you. If you have any
particular interest in becoming involved you can speak with me, Liz or anyone up here.
Alderman Lopez
| have been working with One Greater Nashua since its inception on the Cultural Connections Committee and
the first thing | want to say is that the RFP, the Endowment for Health, the initial project was beyond the scope
of anything that the Cultural Connections Committee could have accomplished. | think the organizations in
Nashua and given the timeframe that we had to actually submit for it, the United Way was the only one who
could have stepped up and pulled this together as quickly as it was done. That’s not one of the things that was
dwelled on in the presentation but a lot of people had to work very hard very quickly in order to present
something that was a valid project and was also of use to the City of Nashua. | think that the Cultural
Connections Committee has particularly benefitted quite significantly. Among the leadership we have the
former Vice Chair Barbosa and Janeth Orozco who is a member. In addition, the project, the goal group, the
leadership and civic engagement has already benefited the Cultural Connections Committee specifically
because two of the alumni of the graduating Greater Nashua Leadership class, which was organized through
that Leadership and Civic Engagement Group as our current chair, Levon Colone and our incoming vice chair,
Rafael Calderone. It was my opinion when we started this project that there is a tremendous opportunity for
additional leadership in the minority communities around Nashua. There are already neighborhoods,
communities and leaders that have solved their own problems. They have created their own networks of
where to go to when you need to solve issues, how to celebrate together and how to experience Nashua. Last
years Latino Festival, we put a lot of work into reaching out to people who did not traditionally go to that
festival and when they attended they were surprised that the festival is large and well run; there’s food and
music. They didn’t necessarily feel welcome going on their own until they had that invitation. This is a two-
way street; we have an invitation through this coalition to experience cultural groups to become part of their
history. | think it’s an important project for Nashua to have moving forward because the two base challenges
that we have in terms of population is an increasingly large diverse population and an increasingly large aging
population. How do we pass on Nashua’s heritage to make sure that it is sustained as the elderly population
starts to decline and the new people start to come in? The way we do that is through this kind of engagement.
