Lynn's New American Center offers assistance
to new immigrants

August 31, 2010
By Reba Saldanha/The Daily Item

Lynn's New American Center currently serves more than 300 refugees and asylees residing on the North Shore by offering collaborative assistance from seven agencies.

Immigrants from Botswana to Burma have learned English, gained citizenship, found employment and a place to live with guidance from the Bosnian Community Center for Resource and Development, Congolese Development Center, Haitian-American Public Health Initiative, Jewish Family and Children's Services, Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, Russian Community Association of Massachusetts and Southern Sudan Solidarity Organization.

Funded primarily by the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants, the center began in a basement office of Union Street in 2001. In September 2009 the doors opened at the much larger, sun-filled fourth floor of the JB Blood Building at 20 Wheeler St.

North Shore Community College student Zuruf Basher, 19, was introduced to the New American Center in 2006, one year after emigrating from Sudan. "The New American Center is kind of home for me. I am coming back to provide help to students. When I was here I was assisted by a Gordon (College) student and now it is my turn to help."

Visit www.itemlive.com to hear recent immigrants describe their experiences at the New American Center in an audio slide show.