Soriya & Aun's Story
Soriya Ton and her mother, Aun Neov, consider NewHolly Youth & Family Center Program Manager Sue Siegenthaler a member of their family. The Cambodian family of seven was dealing with the challenges of recent immigration when they first reached out to the Family Support Center twelve years ago and have been actively involved ever since.
NewHolly serves a Seattle community of primarily of East African and Southeast Asian refugee families and has tailored its programs to its international neighbors’ unique needs. Sue describes NewHolly as a "diverse cultural workshop.” From the start, NewHolly has offered Citizenship Classes and Aun was one of the first participants. Today, NewHolly offers many types of family education and support, including classes in money management, cooking, sewing, and CPR.
Like most Family Support Centers, NewHolly offers an information and referral system to connect families with the precise support they need. NewHolly is stationed in the Atlantic Street Center building at the NewHolly Neighborhood Campus, where there is a pool of additional resources right outside its doors—literally. For example, the Center can easily refer their family participants to community college classes, Head Start and Early Head Start programs, the Job Connections Office, counseling services, youth tutoring, and other youth programs focused on anti-violence and leadership skills at Atlantic Street Center.
Of course, the Citizenship and ESL Classes remain available to immigrant families like Aun’s year after year. For Aun, language was an overwhelming barrier when she first sought help at NewHolly. She recalls, “I didn’t even know what the word ‘family’ meant.” But after attending ESL classes, Aun says, “my confidence swelled because of NewHolly.” She says her other most memorable experiences at NewHolly came from when she got help finding a job and assistance in locating schools for her children.
“Every family has a continual need for support,” explains Aun. As a result, the NewHolly support system has become a part of Aun and Soriya’s family experience for two generations now. Aun’s children flourished from programs like NewHolly’s book class and Early Learning education—and now her grandchildren do too. “I have seen the difference it makes and I want to give that to the next generation of my family,” shares Aun.
Soriya, now 15, grew up with the principles of Family Support both at home and the Center. She remembers times when the “one place my family could turn to was the Youth and Family Center.” NewHolly’s Family Study Time helped Soriya discover her aspiration to be a poet. And Team Alive, a youth support group filled with leadership activities like college campus visits, was another eye-opening program was for her. Thanks in part to these programs, Soriya is determined to become one of the first members of her family to attend college.
Sue Siegenthaler continues the conversation on the importance of Family Support: “Our society these days often treats young people as if they were separate from their parents. The child is seen as an individual. Family Support is necessary because there are so many cultural forces pulling their child away. Family Support treats the family unit as something worth honoring and nurturing.”
