Dreams for My City

It was three years ago today that our lives shifted in an afternoon. I went from planning to stay in France forever, to being open to moving back to the US sometime, to looking at house listings. Within about six hours. We've been here since July of 2012.


Fort Wayne is fully my home now. I get the morning paper, meet people from various pockets of the city through my job, and I don't foresee leaving any time soon. I'm planted here. I've been processing and praying about work and meetings and articles and experiences over the last weeks. Today, I thought I'd share some of my dreams for Fort Wayne. Some what ifs...

Vera Bradley Closing

I read this week that Vera Bradley is closing its New Haven factory, putting 250 employees out of work. This follows their August decision to end the factory's second shift, which terminated 150 jobs. Here's a quote from the article in The Journal Gazette,

New Haven Mayor Terry McDonald has been in contact with the company and stands ready to help those losing jobs.

“We will work aggressively to market and find a company to fill the campus,” McDonald said in a statement. “The elimination of any jobs is of great concern, and we will work with our partners at Northeast Indiana Works and the WorkOne Northeast Center to assist affected individuals.”

But local labor leader Tom Lewandowski wonders how much typical assistance programs can help this particular group of workers, many of whom operate sewing machines or cut cloth. Lewandowski, president of the Northeast Indiana Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO, has met several times over the past few years with groups of Vera Bradley’s New Haven workers.

Traditionally, the workforce has included a large number of native Burmese and Spanish speakers, he said, adding that he doesn’t know the current percentage.

“Many of them don’t have enough English skills to work for other employers in our local labor market,” he said.

Lewandowski would like to see a fund created to help the workers become more employable. He believes that Vera Bradley owes the workers – and the community – such a gesture because the company has saved millions over the years in economic development-related tax breaks and training grants. The displaced workers, he said, also should have a voice in how such a fund would be used."

My dream today is that the community would work especially with those who may fall through the cracks here. What if Vera Bradley gave their machines, the upstairs of the Rialto theater was renovated, those with American business skills partnered with the skilled workers, and products were sold through networks devoted to fair trade and community development? What if some people were able to work from home? What if language classes and friendship with English speakers was a part of weekly work life?

Barriers

My sister, niece, and I attended last weekend's Fort Wayne march commemorating the march in Selma fifty years ago.

I'm struck by the words of Reverend McGill to a journalist after the march, “We can’t just use whether it’s the Martin Luther King holiday in January, these kinds of things, I think we have to find opportunities and almost excuses again to turn to one another. To be such a small city, we still are kind of segregated and segmented if you will, not just racially but socially. We have to find more creative ways to force blacks and whites, Hispanics, Burmese to really get in one another’s face and one another’s space and understand that the real issue is not race, but finding a way for all of us to be working on a positive pace. Finding ways to push one another together is what we’re going to have to do more creatively and more often in the days ahead,” McGill said.


So, what if there were places where we did this--found opportunities to turn to one another? At the simulcast of last month's IF Gathering, we watched a group of diverse women sit around a table and talk openly about race. Some of these women have been meeting once every six weeks to sit and talk and build friendships. They made a resource available for free, you can download it here(you fill out your name and info at the bottom of the post about bridges). What if several groups in Fort Wayne began meeting together, processing events and feelings in a safe place, within the context of growing friendship. What if real partnerships and trust was developed? 


Welcome

Yesterday, a refugee died in Fort Wayne without family--they were still in his country. He was in hospice care and was not left alone. Yet. He did die lonely.


Yesterday, a man from Africa came for a driver's license translation from Arabic. We were able to do it quickly thanks to an Arabic translator who I think delayed his lunch break to do the translation and send it back to me. The man will be taking his driving test this afternoon. He and his wife are educated and have small children. They have some English and have been welcomed warmly and given practical help by at least one American family, but they need and want more American friends.


Yesterday, a man from another African country came for the last of many documents that we have translated for him as he prepares documents to request asylum for family members caught in a war. If they come some day, they will have help from the refugee settlement organization here, Catholic Charities, and there are many other service providers that will step in over their first months and years. They will have family here to pave the way. 


I see goodwill in Fort Wayne. And I don't think anyone should die alone. Or live alone, for that matter. It seems to me that people don't naturally gravitate to those who are different. What if neighborhoods, cultural groups, and faith communities trained their members in crossing cultural barriers? What if a group of friends or a Sunday school class or a bridge group or group that has had a volunteer experience oversees had a way invest in long-term friendship with a refugee or immigrant family or individual who is looking for friendship? 


As someone who has moved often throughout my life, I can say that most of us new to a place are wanting friendship--we're just shy about it sometimes, and language and cultural barriers, like the ones we experienced in Africa and France, mean that others need to take the first step and be a little extra patient over time.


So. Those are my what ifs (at least some of them--I have more) for my city. My home.