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40 Years of Providing ACCESS to the Community
When the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services was founded in Dearborn in 1971, it was little more than a group of concerned citizens looking to help their struggling neighbors.
Many had just immigrated to southeast Michigan. They spoke little or no English. They needed jobs, homes, citizenship and a sense of community. ACCESS provided all those things–but it wanted to do much more.
Now, the organization is preparing to celebrate its 40th anniversary with a banquet this Saturday at the Detroit Renaissance Center Marriott. And that small group of citizens is now more than 200 employees serving 90,000 people per year from seven locations in Wayne and Macomb Counties.
But their mission, said Executive Director Hassan Jaber, has remained the same.
The Early Years
Jaber has been working with ACCESS since 1979. In those days and before, staffed mainly by volunteers and located in one building in Dearborn’s southeast end, the funding, reach and programs of ACCESS were all limited.
“When we started, we had very few programs,” Jaber recalled. “These were primarily teaching English as a second language, which was done by volunteers, and we were also trying to help people find jobs.
“The other area was immigration services,” he added. “The aim was to make sure that we help these immigrants reunite with their families and make sure they understand what’s legally required of them to be united.”
The group’s programs increased out of a desire to quickly address the growing needs of the community: activities, culture, health, social services and education.
The latter, explained Youth and Education Director Anisa Sahoubah, began as an after-school homework help group, held in one large room at the Saulino Court facilities.
“You would drop in; there wasn’t really any criteria for eligibility, there wasn’t a lot of follow-up,” she said. “(The students) would come in, they’d get help with their homework, then they’d leave.”
Literacy programs for adults, as well as recreational options, were often outsourced to other groups or programs.
Jaber summarizes: “ACCESS was, in the beginning, a group of exceptional people–people who believed in community engagement, community service, people who wanted to change life to the better for the community.”
Changes Over Time
Some things never changed for ACCESS: its grassroots approach to engaging the community it serves. Its commitment to empowering people disadvantaged by barriers of culture and language. Its pride in sharing and rejoicing in diversity.
That foundation stood strong as ACCESS grew, adding programming, facilities and new clientele and staff throughout the years.
The Youth and Education Program–one of the organization’s largest departments–has changed both in its goals and in the youth it serves, said Sahoubah.
In 2003, it became a site for the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which provides supplemental education to targeted groups of youth in such areas as math and reading. That program now serves students from multiple public and charter schools in Dearborn, Dearborn Heights and Hamtramck.
But youth and their families are looking for much more than homework help these days, she added, including family literacy, recreational and civic engagement opportunities.
“Years ago, it was mainly students who were struggling with their academics,” Sahoubah said. “Now because of our wide array of activities and programs, we’re getting students who are looking for more of a challenge, more opportunities for community service, more opportunities for civic engagement, building their technology skills.”
“We’re getting more of the students who want to get involved in their community,” she added, “and they’re doing that through ACCESS.”
One of the biggest and most recent additions to the ACCESS sphere was the creation of the Arab American National Museum, which will celebrate its sixth anniversary in May.
Originally conceived as an expansion to the organization’s arts department, the scope of the museum project morphed drastically when, during its planning stages, the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City took place.
Deputy Director Devon Akmon explained that the event underscored the need for a place for the greater community to learn about Arab culture through exhibits and events.
“One of the first things we’re doing is we’re dispelling a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes,” he said. “We’re providing a space where people can actually learn about the Arab-American community and get accurate information.
“A second component is while we’re an ethnic-specific museum, we’re not an ethno-centric museum,” he added. “We tell the Arab-American story, but it’s in context with the greater American story.”
The individual programming changes, Jaber said, mirror the overall shift in whom the center serves and what it does to serve them.
For example, large portions of the clientele of ACCESS are not Arab-Americans, but people of all cultural and ethnic backgrounds looking for resources and a place to connect.
Needs have changed depending on social and economic factors of the region. As with all of Michigan, that has meant a current focus for ACCESS on jobs and health care. The former has meant that ACCESS served three times as many job seekers in 2010 as it did in 2009.
“It really depends on what’s going on around us as a community,” Jaber said of the organization’s focus. “It impacts everyone.”
What Lies Ahead
But as needs have expanded, so has ACCESS. And recent changes, such as the addition of the museum and last year’s opening of new youth facilities at the headquarters on Saulino Court, are still being explored in terms of what they will mean to future staff and clients of the organization.
And as the Sept. 11 attacks affected the museum’s purpose, Jaber said they also highlighted the need for Arab-Americans to become more involved in their communities.
“Not all of what happened after Sept. 11 was bad,” he said. “I think Sept. 11 created a sense of urgency to connect with one another, especially on the part of Arab-Americans. In fact, it has also created the need for Arab-Americans to be civically engaged in their communities.”
Jaber hopes ACCESS and the programming it excels at producing can serve as a model for people looking to do more to ensure the cultural and physical health of their communities. While some similar programs in other parts of the country are still finding their footing, ACCESS has learned to roll with the changes while remaining steadfast in its mission.
And at its helm, Jaber remains awestruck to be part of something so integral to the success not only of the Dearborn community, but other communities like it everywhere.
“(The 40th anniversary) is a reminder of how powerful people can be as individuals and as a collective group,” he said. “I’m blessed by this experience of being in contact and sharing with many exceptional individuals–people with talents and commitment and energy and intelligence. I think that’s a very special life when you are able to discover the power of people and what they can do.”
Jessica Carreras
Dearborn Patch