 the Pesendu kwaia is wonderful. Again, that is the future of man. Do you agree with me? One more time, we happy more than tonight. I'm not sure what to say at this time because we are so honored and blessed a prosperity man to have all of you here but most importantly Kwa na kwa? We have our governor of the great set of men, Jeremy Mills. This is what we say when we invite all of you to come to the Bloc party. Look around you. I'm sure and I'm positive that this is the biggest crowd of a diversity party we ever had and you can't find this anywhere else in the city of Poland. Even in a state of man, diversity is a wealth. That's what we're talking about. Again, today we are honored to have our governor, Jeremy Mills, here with us. But also, we have so many other elected officials. I know that our mayor, Ethan, is in a crowd. Thank you. Please, if you can come forward, come forward and sit down here. Mayor Ethan was in Agasa, but he was texting me that I'm on my way. This is the man of the city. Thank you, mayor. Thank you. Also, we have many city councilors tonight. And also, we have the delegation from Senator King's office and the Pingree's office. All the elected officials, if you are here, please rise. We can recognize you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I want to just, because I have a limited time, I want to thank all our major sponsors because we could not host this without them. I want to recognize some and our chairwoman Helen will come and give the rest of the list. On the major sponsors, we have Heneford Supermarket, we have IDEX, Men's Credit Union League, Infinity Federal Credit Union, nowhere savings, residential and community support services, and Memic. If you can give them applause, please. If you see someone waiting a badge with a sponsor tag on it, please thank them on our behalf. Say thank you. Today marks our first anniversary of Prosperity Main since we switched from community financial literacy. And also our 11th anniversary since we started the organization. Yes. The transition from financial literacy to financial stability was a statement of 10 years of service. And I know we are proud of this, all of us. Prosperity Main's vision was the same, a remainder same is to see all immigrants and the refugees and the low income community build financial stability and improve their lives. Of course, we could have done this without many volunteers including our board member and the small staff that we have. I want to ask anybody who is our volunteer, any staff and the board member to rise so you can be recognized, please. Wonderful, wonderful. You're going to hear more about our program later on. But let me say this. They want me to be brief. To take only five minutes. How am I doing so far? So far so good? Three years ago we had the pleasure of having the main attorney general who was then Jenna Mills to come and speak to us. That was three years ago. Today we have the pleasure of having the first elected woman governor of the state of Maine, Governor Mills. We are so proud of you, Governor Mills. Please put your hands together to welcome Governor Mills on the stage. Thank you. Thank you, Claude. Thank you, Claude, and to your board and all the staff and the supporters of Prosperity Main. I cannot imagine what it is to be, what it would be like to be a new manor, a new immigrant coming to a state like this from a totally foreign land in a cash-based society and not being able to work initially, not being able to find good housing and obtain work and support your family and especially not being able to understand basic financial transactions that many of us here were trained in at an early age. Just balancing checking accounts, credit cards, buying a car, renting a place, buying a home. All these things are so vital for the new manors in this room and elsewhere to become part of our workforce that we so badly need you for. And so it is a pleasure to be here, Claude, not for the first time and not for the last time to support this organization and to encourage the support of others for this institution, which does so much great work. I think I read over the last ten years you've had 840 individuals help through the process to become productive citizens of the United States, productive members of the main workforce. We need you. The report last fall has said that the workforce is diminished in Maine. We have such a great need for people to come here. It's not just a humanitarian thing I'm saying. It's an economic necessity for all of the state of Maine. And we welcome you. And so I meant it during my inaugural speech and I've meant it since then when I say to everyone who's born and bred in Maine, to people coming here from other states, people coming back to Maine, to people coming to Maine for the first time and to all new manors, welcome home. Thank you. Good evening. I always say that my name is Clement Yombe. I am the program director at ProsperityMain. And I always say it gives me a lot of pressure to talk right after Claude. And today I get even more pressure to talk after the governor. Thank you all for coming. My name is Clement Yombe. I am the program director. That's my new... I used to be program coordinator. Now I'm a program director. I got a raise. I have to be used to my new title now. For years we have been providing financial education, bringing knowledge and awareness to those we serve. With the knowledge they receive, our students are becoming financially stable. And well prepared to improve their economic position and improve their chances of becoming financially stable. The question we ask ourselves was how someone can improve their chances if they do not have all the tools they need, all the necessary tools. And one of the important tools we identify was higher education. And we said higher education is a stepping stone to financial stability. You know if you are at a crossroad of life, torn between the option of high school diploma and university, there is one statistic we need to know. If you are a college degree holder, the probability of being unemployed is one in 40. That apart and the earning capacity of a college graduate is far more higher than the one of a high school graduate. The problem with that is not everyone has access to funds, public or private. I'm talking about the asylum seekers. They do not have that chance of pursuing their higher education. Because of the immigration studies, this brilliant high school graduates are not eligible to receive any federal or state financial aid. That is where we stepped in. And last year with a generous gift or contribution we have provided scholarships to asylum seekers who are attending SMCC and the University of Southern Maine. And let me tell you that their individual GPAs are above 3.5. And today, today I am proud to announce that we are going to award tonight 11 full scholarships to students who will be attending SMCC, USM and CMCC. And our hope at ProsperityMain is to expand this scholarship program and to help as many as we can. Having said that I want to invite all of us to watch a short video featuring this year's scholarship recipients. The scholarship to me is a step further to my dream because financially you need some sort of support in order to get to where you're trying to go. Since I was a little boy I always dreamed of getting a college degree so being selected to get the ProsperityMain scholarship it's a great honor to me. Education to me means life changing because without education you won't be able to get a good job, you won't be able to make it different you won't be able to be someone that people will look up to. It just means right now it means everything for me and I just want to keep showing my dreams and now I know it's going to be possible everything I want to thank for this scholarship. My dream is to become a nurse and this scholarship it will help me become one because it will help me pay for my school and it will give me the courage to continue and go forward. Education for me personally and as a woman means a lot because it's going to make me stand out in the community and it's going to make me accomplish certain things that I have within me and I know that I can only get it through a seat at school or at the university. My dream is to become a medical doctor to be more specific gynaecologist and this scholarship will open up more doors for me to focus more on school rather than focusing on how to have more money for my education. My dream is to become a lawyer and this scholarship will open your way for me to become a lawyer in future one day. I have always dreamed to become an engineer and I dreamed about it since I was a kid since I started watching fancy movies and then yeah that's my dream and education is going to help me get through it there is no other option this scholarship is going to help me through it because I need money to pay for this scholarship for this school and the expenses and then this scholarship is going to help me at least I know I'm going to get my bachelor degree from this scholarship so I'm so happy. It is my pleasure to bring forward this year's Prasper scholarship recipient please hold your applause until all the recipients are here Lydia Badoce Ndoma Diabaka Tusen Kristel Falangani Fatia Ismael Julie Kambali Tara Kanga Pi Kiduga Stephanie Lumu Eliezer Mumbele Sara Ruzindana and Kaunga Yaga Ladies and gentlemen here are the Prasper scholarship recipient thank you you may all sit it they sit it you can go back I'm going to call Pi Pi can you come forward we have a surprise for you my name is Helen Andrioli I'm the board chair of prosperity main and we are all here this evening to celebrate a number of things and one of those is that it is Pi Kiduga's birthday so I'm hoping on the count of three we can all say happy birthday Pi two three happy birthday Pi as I mentioned my name is Helen Andrioli and I'm the board chair of prosperity main and I am absolutely thrilled to be up here doing what I consider a very easy job and that is going to be asking each and every one of you to open up your wallets and help us this evening as you just saw we put gave eleven scholarships full scholarships to SMCC USM and CMCC our goal tonight is to raise fifteen thousand dollars and that will allow us to send three more students to school so if you've seen around on the tables we have text to give instructions they're here up on the on the board and I'm actually going to give you the number all you need to do is text give to six one eight nine five two eight please open your wallets the money goes directly to these students to give those scholarships and if you don't I'll be up here again to ask in about ten minutes so make my job easy thank you very much good evening everyone it looks a lot the crowd is a lot bigger from up here hi I hope you are all having a great evening my name is Joana Kawet and I am the financial education instructor and prosperity mate over the past eleven years prosperity mate has served hundreds of people today I have the honour of speaking with two of them first we are going to talk with Bright who will tell us about her experience with the financial education program that we tell her specifically with the new manor in mind and next we will be talking about the C program seed standing for supporting immigrant tenants with BBI and the C program helps people pay for their security deposits when they cannot afford them and it's an interest free loan so without further ado alright how are you doing thank you how are you great Bright when you first arrived in Maine I'm sure you had different questions about what is a credit score or how to budget or even where to put your money when you stop working so was it easy for you to get that information from other community members well firstly good evening everyone my name is Bright based on your question Joana it wasn't really easy because I remember when we came here that wasn't even like something I was thinking about quite honestly there was just so many other thoughts in my head about what we were going to do so I really wasn't sure about anything else but we had gotten in contact with the local adult education school and they were able to orientate us a little bit but they didn't really give us the information that we needed but thankfully there were people from our community that we knew and they were like oh there's this class that's given by then community financial literacy you guys should participate in that we were like what's the class about they told us it was about money management and learning about finances and how things go on in the United States so we were like definitely we're not doing anything so we might as well profit upon that class so we went to the class that was taught by Ms. Clermont and we took part in that and honestly I have to say it was so useful to us because as soon as we left that class a couple months later we started working we used the knowledge that we gained from that class right from the get go so like the first thing I did was open a bank account with a credit union instead of a bank because you know I didn't want to have to handle all the fees that banks come with so I opened a bank account at a credit union and that was based on the information that I got from class so I would have to say definitely like that was the road to taking the class and then from that point forward the knowledge that we gained we definitely used it right from the get go that's awesome and I also happen to know that you took the class with your mother and brother how was it to have that experience with them it was funny it was a ball in class because obviously I had my mother and I had my brother so I had people who at the end of the class essentially would have to keep me accountable like for example at this point in my life if I'm messing with my money my mom will be like we took that class what are you doing that's essentially what is happening I remember we were having a talk with my brother and my mother the other day and my brother was like I think I need to go back to Misi Kremon's class I don't think I listened the first time and we all laughed about it because that's just what the information is to us it's so useful that you can use it in your everyday life so I think the best part that we took it as a family is that we hold each other accountable and we can always remind each other about what we learned in the class and you can all kind of grow together yeah exactly thank you so much yeah thank you bbn so as Covenant Mills mentioned earlier new immigrants often times don't arrive here with the possibility to work and in terms of this sit program supporting immigrant tenants what was your reaction when you heard that you would have to provide and we deposit yourself wow it's so like heaven because I have to explain as a single person when you are depressed coming from another country arriving here you have to find your path it's already difficult so just imagine a parent with children you have to take them to get them to school so as we say in Africa everything start with a home if you don't have a safe place to sleep how can you dream high so everything start with a home and when you find this program where they just tell you that go and see them maybe they can assist you to get a deposit for you to get an apartment or a house for you and your family this is at that specific moment because it was so critical for you it's like heaven as I said because it's so tough looking for from churches from other resources and you don't get it and coming from Africa you come here this winter and it's so difficult for you already with family you have to get used to a new weather and at the same time you have to make sure you're providing for your children and they're looking up to you to see what you bring to them just imagine finding yourself in this situation and when you find this program it's just like they're giving you millions thank you you mentioned the churches what did it mean to you to have this opportunity as a loan as opposed to having it as charity yes talking about charity it's not always a guarantee that you're going to get it when you go begging here and there and sometimes you might not even get a positive response and you feel you feel more depressed because it's kind of some dignity if you go for a loan and you know that at a certain period of time you can pay it back and on the other hand it's helping you build a credit score because coming in this country you realize that everything has to go to a loan if you want to get later a call or years to come you need to go for a house for example you need credit score and by going through this program the good thing about it is they're lending this money to you and you know that you're going to pay it back and you feel good because it's not always good but when you go around and getting negative response it kills your self esteem and all these mixed feelings sometimes it's not good but when you have this dignity of repaying back and you feel that you helping also you helping yourself when they helping the community helping also yourself of keeping the track keeping your moral high you know I hope that when you're building your credit score through this it helps you set your fate here in this country thank you both so much run over close to both of them thank you so a gift for you thank you very much thank you thank you Joana Bibiana and Bright all amazing young women so the first time I came up here was a test this time it's not a test I need everybody who has sat here and witnessed these remarkable young people who are pursuing their dreams their education and their future in this state to open their wallet and text give to 618 9528 our goal tonight is $15,000 we would really love to be able to stand up here next year and say that we sent at least 3 more students to college we had 53 applicants this year and I spoke with one of the members of the committee that chose the 11 they told me that they wanted to give 53 scholarships because everybody was equally dedicated in need and desiring an education so please open your wallets text or I should say open your phone text give to 618 9528 and please make a donation thank you we only have 10% I can't see the screens Klon 10% we have almost 300 people in this room we need to be more than 10% thank you I think this number needs to go quick because otherwise if we cannot even send one student to college the 400 people were here I don't think that will be done a good job I'm just joking the moment of appreciation has come keep texting but at the same time listening to me if you can every year we try our best to recognize individuals businesses and organizations that have done a wonderful job supporting the community supporting our organization we have done this recognition since 2012 almost 7 years ago we have 3 awards that we always give away we provide a commitment to service award and outstanding community partner award volunteer of the year award volunteer of the year award and I'm going to tell you the fourth one just for this event so we have so many partners sponsors and supporters that we want them to come on stage to recognize these wonderful people the first award will be a commitment to service and I will call one of our sponsor Aileen from Memic to come forward and give the first award thank you everyone for coming tonight it has been my pleasure to serve on this board of directors for the last year and to see all the wonderful work that's being done here at Prosperity Main so the 2018 outstanding community partner award goes to Infinity Credit Union Infinity has been a partner of Prosperity Main since 2017 and Joanna just highlighted a little bit about supporting immigrant tenants program which Infinity has been the chief financial backer force since we started that program asylum seekers often lack the financial resources in order to secure that initial security deposit and Infinity's commitment with Prosperity Main has changed the playing field so far we've been able to loan 18 families the money to get into housing and we're hoping with the long-term commitment that Infinity has pledged we will continue to be able to do that for numerous families in years so Prosperity Main is presenting the outstanding community partner award to Infinity Credit Union and thank you for your continued support and I'd like to bring up I'd like to bring up Candy Murrow who's the chief lending officer from Infinity to accept this award I can't hold it or I'll drop it wow I did prepare something but it was very corporate and very boring and what I'm seeing here is just like outstanding it's very it's very emotional what I'm hearing tonight what I'm seeing you don't get a taste for what this community goes through until you sit with something like this and listen to it so I'll make it quick I do remember our first meeting sitting down with Claude and Caroline and Kevin and Kevin and we sat around the table and we discussed the SIP program the deposits for these people that truly needed it and we went round and round and we had discussion and as I was sitting there listening to them I got the feeling of how passionate they were about what they were doing and you can't help but fall into it when you hear it and I know I'm talking for everybody that was at that table it was more than just a business venture it was perhaps a divine intervention if I dare to say so and we are so proud to be a part of it and we just look for it to go on and on thank you when I approached Infinity and another partner Seaport to see how who can support me with this project Infinity really came very strong and said we are going to pledge 100,000 for this particular program it was amazing that really no one could be that and again thank you my friend Liz the CEO is not here but I know Liz and I have really worked very well in this program about three years ago again thank you Infinity for what you do that was outstanding community partner now we are going to award the community to service award and I will ask another board member and also CEO and the president of the chamber to come Quincy to come and give this award please welcome on the stage my name is Quincy Hensel as Claude said I'm the CEO of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce I also serve on the board of directors of Prosperity Main and I'm a very proud board member to be a part of this organization and it's my distinct honor this evening to present this evening's 2018 commitment to service award which this year is being awarded to Hannaford supermarkets now Hannaford is a committed partner with all of the communities it serves as a company it focuses its charitable giving on hunger relief health and wellness and child and family development last year Hannaford donated more than 14 million pounds of food from its stores to food pantries across Maine and the statewide good shepherd food bank Hannaford supports hundreds of local organizations each year because they understand that these types of partnerships make the places that we live and work better they similarly support Prosperity Main because as a company they understand that supporting our organization is an investment in the success of new manors and in the future of our state the individuals who are learning the important life skills through Prosperity Main are Hannaford's customers and their associates through their work with Prosperity Main new manors learn to make the most of their resources and how to find economic security and live fulfilling lives Hannaford understands that a strong community takes the work of many different individuals and organizations coming together and that a strong community is crucial to having a strong business please help me in welcoming to the stage Eric Blom the director of community relations at Hannaford supermarkets to receive the 2018 commitment to service award wow what an evening thank you so much for the songs and the music and I hope everybody is enjoying it as much as I have been because I think it's been a wonderful wonderful night of celebration and one of the things that we're here at Hannaford to celebrate is the work of Claude and the staff and volunteers of Prosperity Main that really are changing the lives in our community and by extension changing our communities for the better and it's not just about economic prosperity it's really about the richness that is being brought to us from our new manors people who bring a richness of experience of perspective of knowledge that all of us are learning from and grow from as a community and as individuals and for that we want to thank both the organization and this entire community of immigrants and refugees who are celebrating here with us tonight thank you very much thank you Eric and thank you Quincy so you have to the crowd to be a little bit quieter the third recipient is a volunteer of the year award and I'm going to invite my best friend Sherry Stevens to come and provide the award thank you Claude I could not be more honored to be helping to present this particular award tonight we see it often right we see folks coming together and donating their time and their skills to help advance the mission of organizations like Prosperity Main they're on the front lines they're where the rubber meets the road and really making a difference and programs that these organizations are putting out there into our communities to make a real difference and keep our communities healthy the recipient of the award tonight is certainly no exception to that she's not only out there in the community executing an event she created it the 20 the 2018 volunteer of the year award goes to Sue Rudilevich alright Byron you were wrong on this Rudilevich Sue is a U.S. citizen who migrated Sue why don't you come on up here while I talk about you for a moment Sue is a U.S. citizen who migrated from England she has always been passionate about helping fellow immigrants and has worked hard alongside her husband to find solutions to challenges they face in 2017 she and her colleagues also on the volunteer committee at Prosperity Main and here tonight co-founded the supporting immigrant tenants program better known as SIT when they introduced the SIT program to the team at Prosperity Main they immediately saw the value and moved quickly to incorporate it SIT program continued to lead the SIT program as a volunteer coordinator throughout 2018 a recent quote from Claude says it all there is no better marriage than financial stability and housing please join me in congratulating Sue Rudilevich for receiving the 2018 volunteer of the year award great honour of course but I should say that I'm a retired person and I only do what I want to mostly and I'd also like to emphasize that this was a team effort I got the ball rolling and kind of kept it rolling but we would never have arrived if it was not for the team and I'd like to give a shout out to Liz McLean Caroline May and Jane Makala Thank you Sherry and thank you Sue again big applause for Sue for volunteering for the entire year I forgot to mention that I have a three weeks baby in a house my daughter I call her my princess Selena is here and I'm so happy and honoured for my wife and the baby to be in a room tonight thank you thank you thank you I love you honey I also forgot to mention I was on a time crash but now I feel like I have more time alright they say no in the last 10 years we did the work more than just the talk if you are found out please find on the table our 10 year impact report which highlights the major work we have done in the last 10 years we couldn't fit everything within 10 years but this is just a summary if you are found out a business leader a banker I know I so many of my business friends here Betsy from CEI I saw Bill from Bank of America I saw the CEO of I'm blinking a bit for the savings and many others also community credit union in Lewiston many of the leaders who have helped us in the past and Seaport and others many credit union league you will find yourself in this booklet for a wonderful job well done 11 years ago when I was struggling to start what was then a community financial literacy I had some help 10 years later some of those who helped me I still serving today and this is a just a surprise because people didn't know this was coming I had privileged to work with wonderful board members who are serving anniversary with us on a boat I would like to invite Bill Brown Mutima Pira and Enkul Kanakan to come on stage and receive the awards each one of these people have his own story I met Bill when I was doing Toastmaster I was learning how to do a speech in a crowd and the first thing that I did when I started the organization I reached out to him and said can you join my board he said yes same thing with Enkul Kanakan a well respected member of the community from Congo when I asked him would you join he said I hope I'm not the only one of others who are going to join and finally my own brother you can imagine how to work with your own brother I learned a lot from this man he's a senior pastor of Betho Christian Center he's also my own brother I learned a lot from him when he founded his own nonprofit unfortunately if he started a business probably today I'll be a millionaire but he put me in a nonprofit these three people have been serving on our board for 10 years you know it's not an easy task to serve on one board year after year but they served 10 years and they're still on the board please again give them applause congratulations for serving Bill Brown and he was also he just retired from the chair of the board and Kul was the first chair of the board when we first started and Pastor Mutima is a member of the program and marketing committee and a very spiritual leader for myself thank you again please if you can stand up and give these people a big applause for serving for 10 years Helen just asked them to serve another 10 years just now let me welcome Helen who is already here to make a closing remark thank you Helen once again thank you all for coming this evening it's really been absolutely fabulous I want to make a point before we head out to thank one person who is absolutely critical to this evening to this organization and that is Claude Reganje and I will similarly ask that everybody here please stand and give him what he deserves we truly truly would not be here tonight without you Claude without your vision without your leadership without your passion I have a few more thank yous to make I will echo Claude in thanking the board we could not put on this event without them people in particular I'd like to thank not only just board members but Byron Bartlett one of our newest staff members who put a lot of effort into this event Melissa Runstrom who I think is here tonight who is an amazing volunteer and if I could I'm going to echo Quincy I'm almost done so if we could just keep it a little quiet in the back that would be fantastic Sally Newhall has been with us for several years doing the event we couldn't do it without her Madison Nadeau who is a prosperity main staff member and in charge of events and finally you may not know that I ran this event for at least the last two years I handed over the reins to the very capable Tara Jenkins who is a new board member and she took the lead and ran with it and I could not be more grateful to her for putting this event together I also want to once again thank the lead sponsors Hannaford, Memic Idex, Main Credit Union League Infinity Federal Credit Union Norway Savings Bank and the Residential and Community Support Services we again could not be here without you and finally and I think most importantly I want to thank all of the attendees all of you who support prosperity main with your time your money and your passion I want to thank the business and government leaders who are here tonight your voice matters what you say matters but also your actions matter and coming here this evening and supporting this community does absolutely make a difference and finally I want to thank everybody who here is here representing the immigrant community everybody at prosperity main wants you to know that your many contributions your knowledge, your talent, your skill your culture are all welcome here in your home state of main and we realize absolutely that a diverse and inclusive community is a prosperous community so thank you