We were very pleased when we added the International Institute as a Good Work partner last year. We have worked with them in two ways: we join their students on field trips to Central Library downtown and act as guides, and we work at Global Farm, an “incubator farm in the Botanical Heights Neighborhood.” The multigenerational and multicultural connections experienced working with small groups of new Americans has been our students favorite and most valued element of our work with the International Institute. Please visit the website of the International Institute and see how your family can connect with the world in St. Louis.
From their website:
The International Institute, established in 1919, is a pioneer in the field of diversity. In all our comprehensive array of adjustment services reaches more than 7,500 immigrants and refugees from 75 countries, approximately 8% of the St. Louis City and County 2010 foreign-born population.
Global Farms: The International Institute Global Farms Initiative is an agriculture-based career training program for refugees with two training locations: the North site, at Hodiamont and Plymouth Ave. and the South site, an incubator farm in the Botanical Heights Neighborhood. The goal of our agriculture job training program is to provide refugees who desire a career in agriculture with a variety of educational opportunities intended for replication in their own farming endeavors. This job training program is a low-cost alternative for our new American farmers and a means to economic self-sufficiency.
Farmers come from a variety of countries including Burundi, Bhutan, Burma, Ethiopia, Morocco, Nepal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, and Somalia. These new Americans will be guided through an intensive season of growing and marketing produce which will contribute to their individual careers as farmers. After completing the program at Global Farms, the refugees who wish to make farming their career will be eligible to apply for a loan from the International Institute Community Development Corporation to lease or buy their own land for farming.