Dear friends:
We are very excited to share that we have been selected as honorees for the 2022 Solas Awards at The Welcoming Center.
What are the Solas Awards?
Each year The Welcoming Center recognizes community leaders supporting immigrant communities in Greater Philadelphia. This year they are honoring three groups, all founded and led by immigrants who have participated in The Welcoming Center’s programming. Let’s Talk Philly! CC is one of them.
A great journey…
For the past two years, the Let’s Talk Philly team has been working to bring together communities to create a fun and safe space for immigrants and refugees where we could practice our spoken English, develop new skills, improve wellness, and build relationships.
Last year, we expanded our core team and welcomed new members; Flor Salgado from Mexico, Coral Zayas from Puerto Rico, and Jieun Kim from South Korea, three amazing women and leaders.
It has been an amazing collective work from the organizing team, facilitators, community, and participants who inspire us to keep getting bigger and stronger every day.
But we have also faced some challenges; as we have shared before, the pandemic allowed us to reach more people in and out of Philadelphia, to be able to create a healing space and a support system when everything was uncertain. Nevertheless, we have learned that building relationships in a virtual environment is not easy; we missed the personal connection and the capacity to build those strong bonds that you make when you meet people in person, that’s why we tried to have as many in-person events as we could.
We faced technological challenges too; we had to enter, adapt and evolve in a new technological environment that was somehow imposed on us to be able to stay connected with others; that wasn’t an easy road, and we are still learning about all these new technologies, but supporting each other we managed to stay afloat.
We are looking forward to growing our team and supporting the community to overcome barriers to professional, personal, social, and economic integration; and engaging in everything important for us to achieve a better life in the USA and succeed.
We cannot wait to keep writing this story, our story with all of you!
Feature image of Let’s Talk Philly’s Core Team
“Sometimes people won’t believe in you, and sometimes you will doubt yourself, but if you want, you can because you have the power!” —Flor Salgado
Please join us to celebrate this recognition, meet the team and learn more about our work on
April 27th, 2022, at Cherry Street Pier from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.
