An overview of the program Building America's Villages which brings American-born and other-born Americans together in community building

1. Building America’s Villages
Creating Villages in America’s
Neighborhoods

2. It takes a village to raise a child
African proverb
• Enclaves of immigrants within larger
neighborhoods…
• No structured means of interactions…
• Loss of meaningful interactions…
• Loss of richness of immigrant culture
• No awareness of deep structure American
culture...

3. Building America’s Villages
• Provides a structure for community building
between immigrant Americans and
American-born Americans..
• Learn English as a second language
• Create an inclusive neighborhood culture
• Based on a model developed for 25 years at
University of Houston

4. Pilot Project
• Between College of
the Mainland and the
University of Houston
• Using the Toolkit for
Culture &
Communication

5. Neighborhood-based ESL classes
• Provide
– ESL
– Civics
– Cross Cultural
Communication
• These classes are
unique in that both
immigrant Americans
and American-born
Americans participate
in them…

6. ESL & Civics
• Only Immigrant
Americans participate

7. Cross Cultural Communication
(The Toolkit)
• Both immigrant
Americans and
American-born
Americans participate

8. Cross Cultural Communication
• First immigrant
Americans study the
lesson with additional
ESL materials to
facilitate learning the
content
• Then they and
American-born
Americans study the
same lesson together -
leading to a sense of
community and
connectedness.

9. Building America’s Villages
Contact information
• Email: cma@culturebump.com
• Phone: 713 987-1678
• P. O. Box 752801
• Houston, Texas 77275

10. Building America’s Villages
Contact information
• Email: cma@culturebump.com
• Phone: 713 987-1678
• P. O. Box 752801
• Houston, Texas 77275