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| Papa Dia |
ALG encourages political participation and brings together the African diaspora in Colorado. ALG provides business opportunities in the communities, mentors the youth to become community leaders and encourages civic engagement. ALG also hosts networking events to build social capital and educational programs to encourage career opportunities in the community.
In this Q&A, Papa discusses the vital work of bringing the concerns and contributions of the diverse African immigrant community together to work toward common goals of uplifting the community’s visibility and presence in the Denver metro area, and throughout Colorado.
How did the African Leadership Group come about?
I’m an immigrant from West Africa, from Senegal. I came to the United States to seek opportunities, to get a job and help the family I left behind. I came from a very poor family, where even eating is a luxury.
For my first job, I worked at Tattered Cover Bookstore. I couldn’t speak English, so my job was stocking books. I would spend 10 hours just stocking books. I had access to books and English tapes, and that’s how I learned English. I learned English from listening to audiobooks. .
My English got better and better, and I transitioned to work at the bank as a teller. Africans would come to the bank and would very surprised to find me, a fellow African, working at the bank. They started asking for me, whenever they wanted help or advice with opening an account, building credit, buying a home, or starting a business. They would also come for help with translating financial documents, things like that.
I got in trouble at the bank, because my mangers thought I was doing more social work than actually doing what I’m hired to do. I told myself that there has to be better way to work for community. That’s how African Leadership Group got started.
Initially, it was a platform for African immigrants to come, and we help them integrate professionally. We wanted to give them the opportunity to be exposed to a professional environment, where they can come and pursue their dreams.
What are the main offerings of the African Leadership Group?
Our vision is to help the African diaspora integrate and prosper by connecting cultures. We work to achieve that by working on social, economic, and educational impact.
Our community is very diverse. We serve many West Africans, East Africans, South Africans – pretty much the whole continent across the board. The Ethiopian community is the largest.
Even though ALG was formed to serve Africans, we are open to other nationalities. We strongly believe that if we live in the United States, and we want to learn and grow, then we need to learn from the locals. We have white Americans and African Americans who are contributing to the organization. We bring human beings together who want to liberate and help elevate Africans.
We focus on social impact because we often need someone to host or guide us when we are still new to the country. People may need help with a place to stay or buying a home. In terms of economic impact, we help people find jobs or start their own businesses.
Our main focus is educational impact. We help families learn about navigating the education systems: how to enroll their children in school, understand what’s next after elementary school, graduating from high school, and moving on to college.
We offer different programs, such as our public speaking class, which is offered every Tuesday. In this class, we teach members of the community how to build their confidence, build character, and have good content. Often, when we come here, we don’t speak English very well. All the knowledge that we have, we tend to keep to ourselves. We tell community members that no matter how bad your English, you can always come to the class and express yourself. We also help prepare them for job interviews.
We also host an after-school program for our school-age children. As immigrants, the way that we studied at home is totally different from the experiences of our children here in America. The system and the curriculum are totally different. We have a lot of parents who don’t know how to help their children, when it comes to education. We also have many parents who don’t speak English. Through the after-school program, we can help the kids with math, science, and reading homework.
We offer kids’ debate every Friday for children ages 9 to 14 years old. I think it’s the most amazing program, because it allows us to truly hear our children. They identify an issue, for example, discrimination or understanding parents. They talk about the issue, come up with a solution, and present the solution to community members.
We also host a health and wellness program. For many in the immigrant community, we only see the doctor when we are about to die, pretty much. We really want to implement an understanding of preventive care, eating habits, and so on.
Our skills training program helps people understand what kinds of skills are needed by employers. Graduating from community college doesn’t guarantee a job. Many African immigrants have trades background – they may be plumbers or construction workers back home. When they come here, they may not know how to channel their skills or how to get proper paperwork done so they can work those jobs.
Our goal is to help elevate them to become competitive in the job market. How do we create employment opportunities for members of the community? How do we build the path for them to become professionals?
What are the top community needs that you are working to address?
Education is a big issue. The welcome orientation, language survey, language protocols, and many other materials are primarily in English or in Spanish. They don’t include all the languages that are widely spoken by our African Immigrant families. We are running a campaign where we are trying to have written materials to be available in the top five most spoken languages in Aurora and Denver schools.
Editor''s note: Walton Family Foundation produced the video below to highlight their support of ALG. The Foundation's Board Chair Carrie Walton Penner visits with Papa Dia and members of the African Leadership Group.
We also want to make sure that our children have access to the best schools. Many African immigrant families live in Aurora, where we have a lot of underperforming schools in Aurora. If you live in a certain zip code, then your children are condemned to go to that school. We want parents to have the ability to pick the school they want their children to attend.
Immigration reform is another issue. Most Africans enter this country legally. We have members of the community who have overstayed their visas. They are now facing deportation; families being separated. We are seeking immigration reform to allow families to stay together for the sake of the children, who are American-born citizens. We cannot shy away from addressing immigration.
Seventy percent of our African community are very entrepreneurial. We need access to funding to start our small businesses. Quite often, they don’t establish credit as they don’t even know what credit is. So we want to create a flexible way for them to have access to funding so they can start a business.
What are the primary concerns of the African immigrant community in the Aurora/Denver area?
We want to make sure that as African immigrants, we are at the table. I strongly believe that if you are not at the table, you’re on the menu. It’s time for us to be part of the process in finding solutions for our concerns.
We are tired of those who sit at the top, telling us what is best for us. We know what’s best for us: allow us at the table. We want to be part of determining solutions, so when we go back to community to implement it, we are part of the solution.
Another thing that we must be aware of is that people have their political agendas. They create tension and climate in order to push their agenda forward. We need to make sure we don’t fall victim to these agendas. This is why it’s so important for our community to be involved in the process, and bring our own action and agenda to the table.
How do we get to the table? We want to have African immigrants run for office, to be part of the school administration, to own businesses, to own their homes. We want to be a position where we can provide for our communities, and contribute to society.
We must create an environment where we have a platform to really get to know each other, learn from each other, and embrace each other. It’s important for the community to know what African immigrants value, and what we can bring to the table. We need to be part of change.
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| ALG leaders serves as role models for first-generation African youth. |
What are some of the lessons you learned in running the organization?
For the first 12 years of ALG, I never received any funding. I operated on my own, out of my pocket. It was very difficult, but I wanted to establish the organization to serve the needs of the community. I didn’t want for funder to come in and dictate the agenda. I wanted to make sure that we are working on the community’s agenda. Even when there was a need for funding, my biggest learning was how important it is to get to know the community. Know your vision, and how to protect it, before it gets taken away, for whatever reason.
Another big learning is understanding the divisions that can exist within community, even among people who come from the same country. To be able to learn the concerns from each community, and to bring their concerns together under the platform of the African Leadership Group.
Success doesn’t happen overnight: it takes time, persistence and consistency. Any organization always has the naysayers, especially when you’re starting out. We’ve been very consistent about providing value for the community. When they walk in, they see something in it for them.
What successes are you most proud of?
First and foremost, I want to thank the funders who took a chance on us: the Walton Family Foundation and the Rose Foundation. I’m proud of the fact that all this hard work has paid off, and allowed me to walk away from my banking career to serve the organization full-time.
I’m very proud of the impact we’ve had on the community. We’ve helped over 200 African immigrants find work in the banking industry. We’ve helped many people to own their homes.
I am also proud of the fact that I am no longer alone in doing this work. ALG has many people who believe in the vision: they contribute and help. It’s refreshing that we have come to the point where my vision has become everyone else’s vision. Everybody’s helping and bringing something to the table to better our community.
Culture is the beginning and ending point of everything we do. As African immigrants, we are proud of our cultural background. I’m also very proud of our yearly event that brings all Africans together. We come together and celebrate together, as one community. It’s about having people from Africa, joining hands and working toward the same goals. It’s a great way to celebrate our culture: to have African food, African attire, African music.
Incorporating culture into our everyday work is about celebrating our identity, knowing who we are and where we came from. It’s about teaching our children that even though we speak English in America, it’s also OK to speak the language from our home country.
We make room to have conversations about our cultural differences. How we raise our kids as Africans, while also embracing American society. It requires an ongoing and daily recognition and celebration around culture.
What do you find most challenging about the work?
Community work is difficult: it’s a 24/7 job, and we need to have capacity to get people to help doing the work day in and day out.
Another challenge is not being able to help everybody because we don’t have the resources. For example, we have people passing away in the community, and their final wish is to have their bodies be sent home. We are not in a position to make that happen. It’s challenging to know of needs in the community, and to not have the capacity to help.
Some of the funding we have is meant for specific needs, and we don’t have the flexibility to use the funds for other areas. We are continuing to grow the organization, as we work toward making an impact and addressing different community needs.
What do you find most enjoyable about the work?
There’s no price tag to waking up every morning, and being in a position to make an impact on someone’s life. People come up to me all the time to say “thank you.” I do this work, because it’s part of being a good human being, to be of service to others. Knowing that people appreciate the impact we’re making is unbelievable.
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| Bringing together the diverse African communities at the annual ALG community celebration |