Patience is the National Director of Temple University’s Project Shine. The project is “a national immigrant integration initiative that helps college students, older adult volunteers, and immigrant elders connect and contribute to their communities.”
Transcript
>> My name is Patience Lehrman. I am the National Director of Project SHINE which stands for Students Helping in the Naturalization of Elders. It is an immigrant integration initiative that is housed here at Temple at the intergenerational center but operates across the country. And the main focus is to really mobilize college students and retirees, engage them through community based learning to serve diverse communities, helping immigrants solve of their most pressing problems from learning the English language, the need to have the jobs that they need to take care of their families in the United States. Helping them, those who are interested and have the skills to prepare and become U.S. citizens, providing assistance to those who are needing to find housing and opportunities to continue to contribute to their communities. And from helping those who are interested in accessing quality healthcare and learning how to interact with the healthcare providers, that's a range of services that our volunteers provide. The role of the National Director is a multifaceted role. And so what a National Director does is really thinking about who are our partners. The success of Project SHINE is the infrastructure we develop, right? And so nothing happens in our office. Everything happens through the partners in the communities, partners that range from public to private partners. We work with government organizations and agencies to small ethnic community based organizations. And so who are the partners, how are we aligning with their missions so we both meet our mutual needs. Oftentimes Temple comes in or a university comes in as the big guy in the room, and you're talking to a small community based organization, and they're thinking, oh, you're just going to swallow them up. You're not looking to help them address their own problems they're having or they're seeking to address in the communities, and that's not the approach we take. So the National Director's role is to look at how are we nurturing those relationships making sure they're authentic. Making sure that those folks know we are partners and not competitors with them, right? Because if they don't offer their resources to us there is no way we can engage students in those opportunities. And really continuing more importantly to look for funding. We are 100 percent grant funded. And so my job revolves around, okay, how are we keeping the lights on and the door open every day.
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