TESTIMONY
Nilbia Coyote on Support and Empowerment Initiatives for Older Immigrant Adults via NICE
2:02:13
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4 min
Nilbia Coyote, Executive Director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), discusses the organization's efforts to support older immigrant adults in New York City.
- Coyote highlights the challenges faced by older immigrant adults, including economic instability, health issues, and social isolation.
- She introduces 'Apprenticeship for Life and Work for Older Immigrant Adults,' a pilot program aimed at providing job opportunities and life skills training for those over 60 who cannot afford to retire.
- Coyote emphasizes the necessity of city council support for this initiative, which seeks to adapt the professional skills of older adults to less physically demanding work in industries like green technology and cleaning services.
- The testimony also covers the lack of access to senior center services and reduced fare MetroCards among older immigrants, underlining the need for informational support and assistance with healthcare management.
Nilbia Coyote
2:02:13
Hi.
2:02:16
Hello, everyone.
2:02:16
Good good afternoon.
2:02:17
My name is Nilakayote, and I'm the executive director at NICE, new American community empowerment.
2:02:23
Thank you to chairs.
2:02:24
We may at Hudson And Abalos for your ongoing support and advocacy on this very important topic.
2:02:30
NICE is a community based organization dedicated to empowering migrant work by organizing the individual and collective social economic and political power to seek justice in life and health work.
2:02:40
Our approach combines a powerful workforce development training program which includes certifications, training, political education, and workers' rights, jobs, surge, and placement with holistic wraparound key supportive services for immigrants and their families.
2:02:54
We were founded 25 years ago, and we serve over 15,000 immigrant workers, new immigrants from the past, present, and future.
2:03:02
From construction workers, daylivers, asylum seekers, restaurant workers, and cleaning, and hospitality workers, we organize the workers of the future.
2:03:10
They have been New Yorkers for more than 20 years or just arriving at Nice.
2:03:13
New York City's population of older adults currently represents 20% cities and third population as we have heard for the last 2 hours.
2:03:21
Last January, the New York Times article, many older immigrants in New York are struggling.
2:03:25
I have no future feature one of our members, Francisco Palazios, and the dire conditions he's currently been in such as thousands of older immigrants in the city.
2:03:36
The article highlighted the reality that NICE has been living for years.
2:03:40
Older immigrants like Mister Palazios now make up just over half of New York City 65 in our population.
2:03:47
A portion of nice members like the San Francisco are aging, and they do not have their sources needed to stop working.
2:03:53
Our a other agent immigrants are in danger because of workplace accidents or dealing with serious illnesses that prevent them from working.
2:04:01
They are struggling with mental health issues such as depression, and many of them feel isolated.
2:04:06
These other members, many of whom are undocumented, came to the US when they were at their prime working age, and they have helped build in New York City.
2:04:14
For years, the older adults took advantage of these years to work hard are maintaining their families here and back home, but they were never able to fully have the economic mobility to ensure them a healthy and peaceful retirement or even access to 1.
2:04:27
Agent immigrant workers have no social safety net available or cannot afford to stop working and now find themselves physically less able to do the same range of jobs and without the savings to stop working.
2:04:39
Their numbers have increased at more than twice the rate of US born senior since 2010, mainly because of the grain of immigrants who came to cater as young adult workers.
2:04:48
Ignite has as nice sorry.
2:04:52
We are asking the support of city council to be able to implement a pilot for 50 seniors call apprenticeship for life and work for older immigrant adults our seniors.
2:05:04
That will support immigrants older than sixty years old who cannot afford to stop working because this is the reality that we didn't mention today.
2:05:11
Or who are on under employed.
2:05:13
To deal with their new life realities, work with them to prepare a life and work planning new phase for their lives.
2:05:20
I just want to mention very quickly that we recognize that many of these older adults, particularly on document immigrants cannot afford to stop working.
2:05:29
For that reason, our culturally competent and dignifying programs for older adults will focus on transforming the professional skill that older adults have developed over the years and transferring them to new workforce alternatives or opportunities to generate an income.
2:05:44
Jobs will not require extreme physical efforts.
2:05:47
For these nice plans to develop alternatives in the seasonal work, green industry redid residential and commercial cleaning and other services service industries.
2:05:58
This population also needs to build new life skills to meet the needs that they are facing at this moment of their lives.
2:06:04
For example, introducing them to senior centers and their services.
2:06:08
Our people do not have a is to that information.
2:06:12
They don't believe they have it actually.
2:06:14
For example, we also think that we should empower people knowing how they can still continue using transportation.
2:06:23
People don't have access to reduce fair metrocars.
2:06:26
They don't have access to health care information.
2:06:29
We need to support them and guide them in the management of their health bills and providing them assistance.
2:06:35
I appreciate your time, and thank you for this extra minute.