“There’s something about immigrants that makes us almost expansive in our thinking, because in our neighborhood, the world meets.”

In April, as the impact of Florida’s shelter-in-plan orders rippled through its communities, clients of the Sant La Haitian Neighborhood Center inundated the organization with phone calls to seek help in applying for unemployment. At peak, the North Miami-based center received nearly 200 calls per day from its mostly Haitian American clients seeking click-by-click instructions to navigate the unemployment site.

The calls motivated Sant La to develop a computer literacy program for adults, most of whom are Creole-speakers working in the service sector. The pilot is set to launch in mid-November.

“It thrust us into a watershed moment,” said Leonie Hermantin, Sant La’s director of development, communications, and strategic planning. “It was coming, the need for technology, but it was exacerbated by COVID. That need became front and center during the pandemic.”

Faced with unique challenges—like language, tech, and immigration status—as the U.S. went virtual, immigrants are reshaping day-to-day interactions and perspectives. In communities across the country, COVID-19 and the movement for Black lives have created opportunities to build new business and service models and even change social norms.

Read the full article about immigrant communities and COVID challenges by Macollvie J. Neel at YES! Magazine.