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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Airenakhue B. Omoragbon, New York Policy Manager at African Communities Together
6:59:28
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161 sec
Airenakhue B. Omoragbon, representing African Communities Together, testified to request $7,800,000 in funding for language access grants to support immigrant communities in New York City. She emphasized the importance of language access services for African immigrants and highlighted the work of Afrolingual, a worker-owned language collaborative.
- Provided statistics on African immigrants and language speakers in New York
- Discussed advocacy efforts for language access laws and policies
- Highlighted the impact of previous funding on Afrolingual's ability to provide services and empower African immigrants economically
Airenakhue B. Omoragbon
6:59:28
Alright.
6:59:29
Hi.
6:59:30
Good evening, everyone.
6:59:30
Can you hear me okay?
Justin Brannan
6:59:31
Yes.
6:59:32
Go ahead.
Airenakhue B. Omoragbon
6:59:33
Alrighty.
6:59:33
So my name is Ayanakwe Omuragban.
6:59:36
I'm the New York policy manager at African Communities Together.
6:59:40
First and foremost, I'd like to say good evening, chair Brannan, chair Aviles, and members of the committees on finance and immigration.
6:59:47
This is actually my first time doing a virtual testimony.
6:59:50
I tend to be there every time, but thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.
6:59:54
So I'm here today to ask city council to renew $7,800,000 in funding to the language access grant to expand vital services ranging from legal and rapid response to critical community education to help New York's immigrants access resources and protect their rights.
7:00:12
I make this request in hope and also in expectation that the council will grant a complete restoration of funding for Afrolingual, New York's first and premier African worker owned language collaborative.
7:00:26
Just to give you all some statistics, according to New York statistics, there are estimated 172,712 immigrants from Sub Saharan Africa living in New York State.
7:00:37
In New York City alone, there are approximately 86,694 speakers of African languages and tens of thousands of speakers of French and Arabic.
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Many of these African language speakers are limited English proficient, and studies show that African immigrants are among New York's most language isolated communities.
7:00:56
I think my colleagues who spoke on the panel earlier from Language Justice Collaborative, they talked a lot about the work that we've been able to do over the last few years.
7:01:05
We advocated for New York City's Local Law 30.
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We pushed for the passage of New York State legislation, New York State language access law.
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And last year, we also worked together to lead a successful campaign that resulted in the New York City Council making an unprecedented investment of $3,800,000 in building the language access workforce.
7:01:27
You know, we since receiving that funding, Afrolingual has been able to provide New Yorkers
Roberto Ponce
7:01:32
Thank you.
7:01:32
With time has expired.
Airenakhue B. Omoragbon
7:01:34
Okay.
7:01:34
Could I just finish this sentence?
7:01:36
And then
Justin Brannan
7:01:36
Sure.
7:01:37
Go ahead.
Airenakhue B. Omoragbon
7:01:37
Sorry about that.
7:01:38
So Afrolingual, you know, we've been able provide New Yorkers with worker owned language access services, interpretation, translation, and English, as a second language instruction.
7:01:48
The development of this cooperative has also empowered the economic uplift of African immigrants living in the city.
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So as everyone knows, this is a very scary time, and, you know, there's no moment like now to continue to provide that funding for language access work.
7:02:03
So thank you again for your time, and, have a good evening, everyone.
7:02:06
And I'll provide the rest in our written testimony.
7:02:09
Thank you.