2021: A Year of Growth for CAIRO

Our Community Partner, the Center for African Immigrants & Refugees Organization (CAIRO), significantly expanded its reach in 2021. CAIRO is a nonprofit whose mission is to advocate for and act to increase equity and social justice through programs, services, community organizing, and collaborative leadership. They create equitable opportunities that allow African refugees and immigrant families to thrive. SVP partners with CAIRO because one of their aims is to expand their culturally-specific preschool services, as well as their wraparound support services to families.

In 2021, we reinvested with CAIRO to include Partner time and a $25,000 grant. We look forward to supporting them this year as they increase their revenue and program spending, engage with Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program, participate in Washington County’s Preschool for All advisory committee, and add partner schools for the SPACE (Schools, Parents And Communities Engaged for African Student Success) program to help hundreds of new K-12 students.

Since our partnership began in 2018, CAIRO has increased their preschool capacity from one to two classrooms for the 2020-2021 school year (and maintained that in 2021-2022) that currently serve 36 children from African immigrant and refugee communities (primarily Somali). In the 2022-2023 school year the preschool capacity will expand again to five total classrooms. For Multnomah County, CAIRO was recently offered 40 Preschool for All slots, which will fund two of the classrooms (the funding includes $15,000 per slot, plus setup and transportation funding) in addition to the third classroom funded by Preschool Promise. In Washington County, there will be two classrooms, likely funded by Preschool Promise. Although the preschool was remote last year due to COVID, it was extremely successful. Nasteha Mohamed, Lead Teacher in Beaverton, shared, "Online instruction was a challenge… We made it work by ensuring all families have access to devices and we printed out packets with practice material prior to going to go remote." In addition to the preschool program, CAIRO has a trio of programs that are funded by money that the Equity Collaborative helped secure as part of Oregon's Early Childhood Equity Fund (ECEF): Parent-Child Interaction, Parent Coaching, and Kindergarten Transition. These three programs are designed to help children (ages 0-5) and their parents outside the preschool setting.

CAIRO also helps children feel safe, supported, and ready to learn through their SPACE Program, which provides similar culturally-relevant support for school-aged students that children receive in the preschool. By working in schools, staff are able to augment and enhance children's’ experiences by helping to connect, translate, mediate, and educate the different people and institutions involved in their education. The SPACE program will double its reach in 2022, expanding from six schools in Beaverton School District to 12 schools. SPACE Program Manager Maxwell Olwa is proud of their accomplishments. "Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been able to engage our students and the community, expanding our programing and meeting their felt needs. Bringing families to participate in programming has been a highlight of our work and I hope we can continue to be able to encourage their involvement with kids even though many are essential workers or working more than one job." The SPACE Program has been such a success that CAIRO opened an office in Beaverton. This new location also houses the vaccination team. CAIRO's strategy of providing multiple types of programs are critical to supplement their preschool because the health of families affects the outcomes for their children. One of the wraparound services that CAIRO has provided the community in the past two years, and will continue into the future, is a robust COVID-19 response that focuses on health and resilience for children and their families. CAIRO does educational outreach to inform people how to get vaccinated, helps schedule people for their vaccinations, and runs successful vaccination clinics. CAIRO also stepped up to help their community when people contracted COVID-19 by providing food and assistance with rent and utility bills. This allowed people who were ill to stay in their homes as they recovered, keeping families together and the community safe. CAIRO also helped families struggling to pay their rent, regardless of their COVID status, by helping them apply for relief through the Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program.

In addition to increasing equity, social justice, and health through their programs, CAIRO leaders are advocates for their community. Commissioner Nafisa Fai, who is a member of CAIRO’s Board of Directors, represents District 1 in Washington County (the communities of Aloha, Beaverton, and Cooper Mountain). She is a refugee from Somalia, has lived in Oregon for more than 22 years, and is the first Black immigrant to serve as a Washington County Commissioner. Nafisa has spent the majority of her career working in public health, and she founded the Pan African Festival where she unites Oregonians from all backgrounds to celebrate cultural, economic, and social vitality and support for emerging small businesses. Abdisalan Muse, CAIRO’s Board Treasurer, serves on the Washington County Preschool for All Advisory Committee. He is an important advocate for African refugees and immigrant children in the planning process. We are proud to support an organization that is involved in advocacy work to change systems and make a difference for children.