I’m grateful for the invitation to do an interview with Greeley Living Magazine for the March 2023 issue. I love being a part of my diverse community!
Empower – Connect – Advocate
Located on 8th Avenue, the Immigrant and Refugee Center of Northern Colorado (IRCNOCO) has been serving the community since 2017, when the Immigrant and Refugee Center of Northern Colorado began as a combined operation between Right to Read of Weld County and the Global Refugee Center. Rather than providing English language training to some clients and Community Navigation services to others, becoming one, larger organization meant that they could be reaching more of our clients’ needs by making their services into one efficient, effective process in one location.
Explains IRCNOCO Community Navigator, Georgia Coats, “The driving force behind our mission is successful integration where immigrants and refugees have a place to resettle and call home—a place to thrive and a place where healthy integration means that they feel like they belong and have good things to give and receive in community.”
Some of the services they provide include individualized case management and employment support for refugee clients, translation of relevant documents and information into various languages for their clients and families, assisting community members through the process of becoming United States Citizens through Citizenship classes and interview preparation sessions, and providing resources such as tablets and hotspots to help facilitate digital literacy. They also have a variety of educational courses for their clients, including a “Little Learners” program for preschoolers, and a Women’s’ Empowerment group.
A daughter of Greek immigrants herself, this organization is near and dear to Georgia Coats’ heart. “I have always lived in diverse communities where multiple languages and cultures have enriched my life. I was born into a Greek Immigrant community in Denver and have lived among various diverse groups of immigrants and refugees ever since. I have a BA in Spanish and Bilingual Education from UNC, and an MA in Language Learning & Linguistics from Wayne State University in Detroit. My husband and I lived in Dearborn, Michigan, where we worked in an Arabic-speaking Muslim community for 17 years.”
In 2018, the Coats family, now grown to five members, returned to Colorado and settled in Greeley. “Though we still grieve the loss of easy access to falafel, waffles are an important staple for Saturday morning breakfast. I’ve been a language learner my whole life—starting with Greek, then Spanish, then dabbling in Arabic. I’ve learned some things more successfully than others—but my lack of success in some language learning contexts has made me a more compassionate language instructor and language learning coach. In addition to my parttime work at IRCNOCO, my husband and I also work with another nonprofit that focuses on ethnolinguistic communities worldwide.”
Women’s Empowerment
Georgia joined the IRCNOCO mission in 2020 as a Community Navigator, a big change from teaching English. “Teaching was a place where I could work out of my strengths. Being a Community Navigator, however, takes all my language and culture skills but also challenges me to take a more vulnerable posture of humility.”
In 2020, she also began to gather women together at the center for the Women’s Empowerment Group. “We have grown into a small group of tenacious women from six different countries who seek to lift each other up towards our goals and dreams and be supportive of each other’s journeys. We believe that girls with dreams become women of vision.”
They’ve seen that same support in the larger Greeley community as well. “An outpouring of serving with my local church and working part time at the IRCNOCO has led me into a beautiful community cross-section called Zoe’s Study Buddies,” says Georgia. Study Buddies started as a group of high school kids from refugee backgrounds asking for one-to-one academic tutoring. Many of these teens come from the families that they serve at the IRCNOCO.
“My colleague, Kathy, and my neighbor Emma, and I began to respond to this need for tutoring in various ways. We now have 8-12 highly motivated teens from at least 6 different language groups who receive academic support and a warm beverage on Tuesday nights at Zoe’s Café in downtown Greeley! We’ve become more than a tutoring group, though, we’re more like a big, bustling family of teens, tutors, drivers, and a growing sense of belonging.”
Mohamed and the Thanksgiving Turkeys
And this community support goes both ways. “Our clients at IRCNOCO are often very grateful for the services we provide and find ways to be generous with us when they have the opportunity,” she says. Recently, they saw this when a client named Mohammed came in the week before Thanksgiving wanting to gift IRCNOCO Office Manager, Tony, with three large frozen turkeys. Mohammed, who doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, works at a meat processing facility and his workplace gave him the turkeys as a holiday bonus. He was eager to share his bonus with his friends and immediately thought of some of his American friends who might appreciate such a gift.
When he showed up at the IRCNOCO with his abundant supply of frozen poultry, they had to act fast to keep his gift from going to waste. “Tony asked if there was a way I could take them home to keep them frozen so they wouldn’t spoil. I quickly called my husband, who came by the center to temporarily store the birds in our freezer.”
The next challenge was what to do with the turkeys, as most people had already gotten theirs! Thankfully, they were able to find families to give them to using their networks at church. “I felt like I was in just the right place at just the right time—to receive the turkeys from Mohammed via Tony, send them to the deep freezer with my husband, and then have the privilege of giving two of them to these other community members. Giving and receiving is a crucial part of healthy community and belonging,” Georgia concluded.
When asked about what she loves most about IRCNOCO, Georgia said, “I love the idea that people moved westward and into this High Plains area of Colorado in search of something better for their lives. It takes a courageous spirit to leave the familiar and explore new frontiers; and I see that kind of passion for discovery and innovation woven into the culture of our community. Similarly, the newcomers looking to resettle here from places like Burma, Somalia, and other parts of Africa, Asia, and South America are seeking the promise of a better life and a safe place for their families to belong and thrive.”
In parting, Georgia had this call to action for readers. “As a community, we have the unique opportunity to continue to nurture that spirit of new frontiers for these diverse populations. As they are able to successfully integrate here, they deepen and enrich our culture that is unique to Greeley and this High Plains area. I hope to see more and more of us on the ‘welcoming committee’ for those who want to call Weld County their home.”
On My Mind 