PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jennie Spector, Social Worker and Immigration Advocate
4:08:13
·
168 sec
Jennie Spector, a social worker and immigration advocate, testified about the gaps in services for young migrants in adult shelters and the significant role of mutual aid groups in providing support. She highlighted the lack of a streamlined response from agencies and the need for better placement mechanisms for these youth.
- Emphasized the importance of the hearing in bringing attention to the issue of unaccompanied immigrant youth
- Pointed out the growing number of young migrants in adult shelters in Brooklyn, specifically in Clinton Hill
- Noted the lack of discussion about education for these youth during the hearing
- Offered to provide additional information and help flesh out the picture going forward
Jennie Spector
4:08:13
Hi there.
4:08:14
Thank you for I really wanna thank 2 committee chairs for holding this hearing because it's obviously, we saw it as incredibly important information that has been basically not out in public in the right way.
4:08:32
I'll just introduce myself.
4:08:33
I am a social worker and a long time immigration advocate, but When there was a large influx of recently arrived migrants and the silent seekers, I stepped up in a big way to help to organize mutual aid, mutual aid response.
4:08:54
Here in Brooklyn where I live, and I live.
4:08:57
I'm in Fort Green, and you probably know there are 3 migrant shelters in Clinton Hill, which is the next neighborhood for me on Hall Street.
4:09:06
And in that area, And in November of last year, we started to see a growing number of these young migrants in in these adult migrant shelters.
4:09:21
And so I think that something that hasn't been brought out in today's hearing is that, well, we clearly saw from the response from the agency that they have these yawning gaps, right, in in what they are providing for this population and what they're not providing.
4:09:40
And so we, as mutual aid groups have stepped up in a very large way to provide support for these young people.
4:09:53
There are the gaps and, you know, you can see that there is no, no, you know, streamlined response to provide them with the support and the care that they need and that they deserve.
4:10:06
Right?
4:10:06
So first of all, I immediately saw that the major problem was that there is no mechanism when they go to the Roosevelt's website shelter for them to be placed.
UNKNOWN
4:10:17
SON has expired.
Jennie Spector
4:10:20
So I will submit the rest of my my testimony in writing.
4:10:24
And I also just wanna say there's been very little there's been almost no talk about education today, which is a huge piece.
4:10:32
So we'll be helping to get written testimony submitted from people who have kind of been really focusing on that.
4:10:41
There's a very large mutual aid response and network who have been really providing most of the help for these young people.
4:10:51
And I'm happy to, you know, be available, you know, going forward to kind of help help to flesh out the picture more.