During their Migrant Resource Night, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 provided a judgment-free space where migrant families would be able to find various local organization resources, one of the ways the district hopes to continue to plug their new community members into the rest of Oak Park.
The event was held at Holmes Elementary School on Tuesday, Jan. 23 and was organized by the Multilingual Parent Advisory Committee – a D97 alternative to the required Bilingual Parent Advisory Committee. The Illinois State Board of Education mandates such committees when there are 20 or more English learner students of the same home language.
With the diversity found in the student body population at D97, Marta Barriga, a member of the MPAC, said Oak Park is not a bilingual community, but rather a multilingual and multicultural one composed of people from various backgrounds and languages.
MPAC helps facilitate communication between the district and parents who are not native English speakers and provides translation services.
According to the 2023 Illinois Report Card, the English learner population at D97 has increased in recent years, going from 2.6% in 2022 to 3.2% for the 2023 report. In 2021, the district had 2.4% of their students as English learners- students whose primary language is not English. In 2023, the state’s average for English learners was 14.6%, up 1.7% from 12.9% in 2021.
“We are working together to be a bridge and support the newcomers in anything that they need,” Barriga said. “Navigating the system. We work closely with the district, the administrators to make sure if registration is translated, do they understand what they need to enroll their kids. Anything that can come up to help them navigate the system.”
This is the second year that D97 has hosted a Migrant Resource Night. The first was last May.
The inception of the idea began when the district saw an influx of new families, many of whom were migrants. In partnership with the Diversity committee, MPAC and multilingual teachers across the district began reaching out to various organizations for participation in hopes of bringing as many of the resources they could under one roof.
In attendance were various organizations including Children’s Clinic, the Oak Park Public Library, Brown Elephant, Beyond Hunger, Shriver Center for Poverty Law, and the Collaboration for Early Childhood Education.
Kelly Andrew Stiles, store manager of The Brown Elephant Resale Shop, was present at the event to help people learn more about the local thrift shop and how they work in connection with Howard Brown Health Center, which offers various ways of helping fund healthcare for the uninsured and under-insured.
“I feel like the message of Howard Brown Health Care is to be a way for people to get a leg up and help those who are often ignored,” said Gilbert Vivas, an employee of Brown Elephant. “I feel like this is an easy way to do that locally and more directly.”
Audrey Greffin, the director of grants and outreach at Oak Park River Forest Infant Welfare Society Children’s Clinic, said it is important to be an active part of the Oak Park community and offer great resources to those who need them.
Greffin said the organization also participated in last year’s event and they met multiple families who expressed need in their service – which they offer medical, dental, mental and behavioral services for children up to the age of 21 years old.
The need for these types of events is increasing.
“The influx of new families is big,” Barriga said. “I think Oak Park always attracts people from everywhere, it has always been very diverse. But definitely in the last six months there has been an influx related to the influx in the country.”
A mom, who for safety concerns asked not to be named in the article, said her two children attend schools in D97 and she was invited to the event to learn more about possible assistance; she arrived with her children on Nov. 7 on a bus from Texas.
“I am very grateful,” she said. “It has been a huge help, what Chicago has given us, and the district. We are truly grateful.”
And families are arriving all over the world. Barriga said they have had families from various backgrounds, including Russia, Ukraine, Brazil, Venezuela, among others.
Luis Fernando De Leon, assistant superintendent of middle school for D97, was also in attendance and raved about the sense of community that these types of events instill not only in the district but in Oak Park as a whole.
“When you come into a community or you move into a community you want to be connected,” De Leon said. “Our connectedness is what is very unique about Oak Park. Having the opportunity to have this access and how these connections are available to you is one of the biggest assets.”
Supporting those connections and “links” to organizations is a top priority for D97.
But having an event where families can come and eat together also creates a time for them to create connections amongst themselves and start building their own connections. The district provided dinner and had childcare for children to watch a movie while parents received more information about possible resources.
“It’s no longer just about knowing a place, it’s about actually knowing the person and the needs,” De Leon said. “Our commitment is with the opportunity to really welcome families and really provide that access and opportunity.”