 My name is Ann Smith. I'm a retired English teacher from New Hampshire. And when I retired about five years ago, I moved here to Portland because this is a very happening community. There's a lot going on. And there's always something interesting and new to do. And I'm here today with my friend Chamba Coluba, whom I'm going to introduce to you in a moment. But first, I want to tell you about the project that I represent, which is Project Bazia. We're a very small nonprofit. We work primarily with new arrivals from Africa, especially youth. We're working now at Portland High School, introducing young men and women to the skills they're going to need to move into the American community successfully. We also work at Long Creek Youth Development Center with many youth out there. And we always need people to help us. And that's why I'm here today with my friend Chamba to make a plea for volunteers. I want to tell you a little bit about Chamba. He has an impressive resume. His name is Chamba Coluba. He is a native of Zambia. And he's a social science educator and a master advisor in the Office of Student Success at Southern Maine Community College. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology with a concentration in anthropology from Bates College. And he has a master of art in conflict transformation and sustainable development from SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont. In recent years, Chamba has worked on many sustainable agricultural organizations and initiatives overseas, as well as here in Maine. He has contributed to communities in the USA and abroad in various significant ways. Here in the US, he has mentored youth through the Boys and Girls Club and the Big Brother, Big Sister programs. He has also worked with refugees and immigrants in Maine with a focus on assimilation and integration into their new culture. And of course, as a sociology major, that's something he knows a great deal about. He is also the president-elect for the South Portland Rotary Club Sunrise Chapter. And he is here to talk to you about civic engagement. Tell us about civic engagement, Coluba. Sure. You know, the worthy of society is its people. And if you look at our own societies, especially our own communities in Maine, there are many issues that needs attention. And the people who belong to those communities are the ones who have to take care of those issues. Those that are negative, we have to transform them into positive. Then those that are positive, we have to sustain that. So I'll talk about adding beauty to beauty. And when we use the worthy civic engagement, community service, in institutions, they may look at service learning. We are looking at contributing to society in meaningful ways using our own assets, skills and strength, okay? In the case of Portland in particular, we have poverty. We can see people constantly on the streets asking for resources. The economy has something to do with that. We have people who are homeless. We can see that from the soup kitchens. My institution, Southern Maine Community College, just established a food pantry to address some of those challenges that we see from our own students who are struggling. And when I focus on the issue of civic engagement, service learning, community service, it is one thing. And what we are looking at is how can we identify people in community who can use their time and in some cases resources, such as finances and food that they have to help those who are in need. My focus is now more on the youth, how to make them more engaged in their own communities. We all need support. And when I look at Portland and Maine in general, has a lot of immigrants coming from all over the world. We have people from Afghanistan, Iraq, African countries, Hispanic backgrounds, those who are coming from Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Dominican Republic. There are many of those people coming here. And that has been shown in the past decade. So our focus should be more of how to integrate these people and make them be able to contribute to society. Of course people are willing to help those who are coming in by providing language centers, providing cultural assimilation programs. But more is what can we also do to make them able to give back to society, able to give back to Maine communities. I think by outlining some of the programs, the good things that are happening in our communities will make others who are not aware of what they can do to be able to enter the system of giving back. So what you're saying, Chamba, if you don't mind my interrupting, is that basically we're not asking just the people who are always here in Portland to volunteer to become involved to help. But we're asking some of the new arrivals, particularly ones who have been here for maybe two or three years, they know the ropes, they can really help by pairing up with someone who's new and showing them how they succeeded or maybe even say, I made a mistake, you don't wanna make this mistake. Sure, there are two things we are looking at. Those who are already here, who have been helping or supporting communities, we're encouraging them to keep on doing that. They should continue doing what they are doing. And again, thank you so much to the people in our communities who have been supporting our own communities in various ways. For those who are new, they might not know how to contribute, where to start from. So we are here to actually find ways of making them be part of the system to learn that society can only survive when its members are active. It's not about getting a job and getting a pay. There are many things that we can do, helping the elderly in the communities. We are people in the community who can care for our neighbors. So how do we make our communities progressive, safer, and well-fed and clean? Is by being active in various ways to give back. Now, for the newcomers who are coming, of course we are able to channel them in a way that supports community, okay? By doing that, we should be mentors, able to show them what is the right thing to do in community. And the tradition of helping, the tradition of community is very strong, particularly in third world countries. I mean, it's a village quite often. People are working together. So we're not asking new arrivals to do something they're not used to doing. We're offering them opportunities to do something that they may even feel now that they're missing this opportunity because they're isolated in different places in the city. We haven't got time today to go into detail about every single possibility, but we can tell you where to go if you want to help, and that's what we have to do. For example, you can tutor, you can be an academic tutor. Perhaps you're an engineer who's sitting waiting to get permission to find a job, but you don't have a job yet here and your English is fairly fluent and you speak French and you know you could work at the high school for a couple of hours a week. If you decide you want to do something like this, and it could be anything from helping deliver furniture that's free to a new arrival, or working in a food pantry, or mentoring a youth or an older person, whatever you decide you want to do, you have to ask yourself three questions. First, what are my skills? Second, how much time can I really give because it's a commitment? Sure, sure. And the third thing would be, how do I go about getting involved and what's the right program for me to volunteer to? And that's what we're here today to announce is that Project Pizia that works with youth has an email address and it'll be on the screen and I'll say it right now. It's Bazia, B-A-Z-I-A at projectbazia.com, all lower case. And if you will email us and say I'm so and so, I can do this, please tell me where I can go and become involved, we'll be happy to contact you. So give us contact information, your email, email us and tell us your skills. We would love to have you help and become a bigger part of this community. Thank you so much, thank you so much. I should emphasize that the strength of the community lies in its members, in its citizens, you see. And there are so many areas where we can contribute to to strengthen our own communities, of course education. Again, looking at our African background, we believe in what we call Ubuntu. It's an African philosophy. Pretty much we are saying I am who I am because we are as a team. And that is the thing that we'd like to see here happening. When we're talking about civic engagement, community service and service learning, it brings people together, making connections. Able to know- What was that word again? Ubuntu. Ubuntu. Ubuntu. It's a wonderful message. Sure. And thank you so much to come and share that with us today. Ah.