Transcripts

MARISA HELMS: The new Neighborhood House is down a side street on St. Paul's West Side, in the heart of the city's Latino community. The three level 93,000 square foot building is made of steel, glass, and stone. Panoramic windows overlook the homes and businesses of the families Neighborhood House Serves every day. Inside, visitors are welcomed by a large rotunda, and an open room with a fireplace. Down any hallway or up the stairs, on any given day, Neighborhood House offers 14 different programs for immigrants and refugees.

SPEAKER 1: First question, what are pets?

SPEAKER 2: Dogs. Cats.

SPEAKER 3: Fish.

SPEAKER 1: Fish? Yeah, fish are pets.

MARISA HELMS: Last year, Neighborhood House served 750 people through its English language learning program. In the new building, 200 people a day are coming to take classes.

SPEAKER 1: So question, do you like pets? Who likes pets?

SPEAKER 4: I hate pets.

SPEAKER 1: You hate pets.

[LAUGHTER]

MARISA HELMS: One of the students in this class is 30-year-old Norma Rios.

NORMA RIOS: I have the best teacher in Minnesota. She's a very good teacher.

MARISA HELMS: Like Rios, about half of those enrolled in the English language program are from Latin America. The other half are a mix of Hmong and East African refugees. A small percentage of people are from other parts of the world, including Russia and Vietnam. Rios, who was born in Mexico, has been in Minnesota for about five months. She takes classes at Neighborhood House four days a week.

NORMA RIOS: I have to, to learn English. Because it's necessary on living in the United States. I have a chance to get a better job, to have a better life.

MARISA HELMS: Neighborhood House offers up to 20 free language classes a day. Program manager Brad Hasskamp says the philosophy behind the English language learning program is more than just teaching English.

BRAD HASSKAMP: We're trying to build a community here with our learners, and working with our learners, and learning from the learners, having everyone share their story so they can have a voice and help build and participate more fully in the community, and gain a real leadership role and help them feel that they belong here, and this is their country too.

MARISA HELMS: And that's where Paul and Sheila Wellstone fit into the Neighborhood House story. Paul Wellstone was a two-term Democratic Senator from Minnesota. He and his wife, Sheila, died in a plane crash just before the 2002 election. Neighborhood House President Dan Hawkesworth says Wellstone's association with his organization started with making Hmong refugees feel at home in Minnesota.

DAN HAWKESWORTH: Neighborhood House is known as the birthplace of the Hmong Naturalization Act.

MARISA HELMS: The Hmong Naturalization Act gave citizenship to Hmong veterans who fought for the United States during the Vietnam War. It was sponsored by Wellstone, after he met with Hmong veterans groups at Neighborhood House's old facility. Hawkesworth says, Wellstone maintained his ties to the Hmong community, returning often to meet with refugees at Neighborhood House. Hawkesworth says just before the Senator died, he was trying to help Neighborhood House secure federal money for a new facility.

After his death, Congress authorized $10 million for the new building, and designated it as a national living Memorial to Senator Wellstone and his wife, Sheila. The $25 million center includes two-full sized gymnasiums, eight classrooms, a 266 seat theater, two computer labs, and a food shelf. Hawkesworth says, while the English language learning program, or ELL is the most visible service at Neighborhood House, the food shelf is the biggest, serving about 6,000 people a year. Hawkesworth says the food shelf is the doorway to other services at Neighborhood House.

DAN HAWKESWORTH: Right then, we start building connections with that family. We're really all about building relationships, ultimately. And so we will connect them to our programs, whether it's our ELL, or they need activities for their youth, or they need want to participate in one of our cultural support groups so they can learn from some of their peers.

MARISA HELMS: Hawkesworth says, the origins of Neighborhood House go back to 1897, as an outgrowth of a settlement house serving Russian and other Eastern European Jewish immigrants. Hawkesworth says Neighborhood Houses provided services to over one million people since it opened in the late 1800s. The center has served Gilbert de La O's family for decades.

GILBERT DE LA O: With my granddaughter enrolling in child care here several years ago, that made four generations of my family that have used Neighborhood House services over the years.

MARISA HELMS: De La O's grandparents came to the US from Mexico during the 1910 revolution, and his family worked in the fields in Southern Minnesota. Gilbert was born in New Ulm, but came to St. Paul as a young boy. De La O says he had some trouble adjusting to life in Saint Paul, and was labeled a juvenile delinquent. But he says Neighborhood House provided him with the support he needed. He believes in the place so much, he's been associated with it for over 50 years. Initially, as a participant, and as an employee since the 1970s.

GILBERT DE LA O: This is why I really believe what Neighborhood House is about, and I'll say this through a quote that I saw a long time ago, is that it's something that goes like this, that to the world, we may be one person, but to one person we may mean the world. And I think that's what's happened here. I think for me, there are some folks at Neighborhood House who gave me that encouragement, who pat me on the back, even though the jury may be out on me sometimes on where I'm at now in life, but I think I wouldn't be where I'm at today without the help of certain individuals here at Neighborhood House.

MARISA HELMS: This weekend, Neighborhood House celebrates the opening of its new facility, the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community Building. This is Marisa Helms, Minnesota Public Radio News.