ORDER-2022-154 : Appointment of Tesfay Aradom, 126 Green Street, to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term, said term to expire on the last day of February, 2025.

Transcript (~11 min @ 51:58)

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▶ 51:59 Speaker 5: Okay, so let me keep going keep going. That's all right.

▶ 52:02 Jen Grigoraitis: Yeah, keep going. So we have two orders before us tonight. The first is order 2022-154 appointment of tesfaye, aerodynam 126 Green Street to the Melrose Human Rights Commission for a three-year term said term to expire on the last day of February 2025 and while mayor Broder and our nominee get settled at the table. I will entertain a motion

▶ 52:23 Speaker 5: to suspend the rules so movements.

▶ 52:25 Jen Grigoraitis: Second so we have a motion to suspend the rules made by President Cinella seconded by councilor Cassidy all in favor any opposed. All right. The rules are now suspended mayor Broder. Welcome the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Once again,

▶ 52:37 Paul Brodeur: I couldn't be more excited to bring Dr. Ardon before you if you're consideration as an appointee to Human Rights Commission if you have had a chance to review Is resume you'll really see an extraordinary amount of training passion. I would say bilingual but that would really sell you short and that's really not fair. Quite frankly for you to be able to to hear directly from him. But again, you'll see he has a deep training both in you know, educationally with his PhD in Psychology, but also has a real depth of experience. in Immigration and Refugee issues in particular around Eritrea it's really kind of a an opportunity that dropped in our lap when we started to circulate this position a little bit to get some really an outstanding individual who can make unique unique contributions to the work of the Human Rights Commission and so doctor if you'd like to say a few words, that would be terrific.

▶ 53:56 Speaker 11: Thank you for those kind words Mr. May. Yeah, my name is testify ardome. I actually just moved to Melrose about a month ago. Maybe a little bit longer currently. I'm a professor of psychology as Roxbury Community College. I've also traveled abroad to Eritrea and Ethiopia and the Sudan doing some work with World displaced populations particularly children. Making sure that their rights are protected. In addition to that. I've also been involved for a very long time. I came to Boston back in 1972. I was a very long time ago and since then I've been involved in making sure that the rights of people particularly the right to sell determination. Is protected on a larger scale but within that? that You know people are not discriminated because of their differences in terms of religion faith. Social class or whatever the case is. Here in the US did work. About for 10 years. I was the Secretary of an organization based in DC but with the with an affiliate here in Boston securing the rights of people particularly in South Africa. This was before Mandela was released and we did some work there we try to Educate people about people's rights and so on and so forth. Luckily, I'm interested in making sure that people's rights are not just protected but are also Advanced so we need to elevate. And try to be an exemplary Society in terms of protecting and Advising people's rights with regards to a number of issues. It could be as simple as public transportation or it could be as complicated as financing and so on and so forth. Keeping him in mind that. We have differences but there's more than more things that unite us than divide us. I mean, that's that's my policy. Thank you.

▶ 56:23 Jen Grigoraitis: Thank you very much for being here. Are there any questions from my colleagues counselor jimaldine?

▶ 56:27 Maya Jamaleddine: welcome to

▶ 56:33 Speaker 4: manfall

▶ 56:35 Maya Jamaleddine: With the community, so we appreciate that as the mayor mentioned your resume impressive and all your experience. I'm sure it's going to be very valuable to our community. We do have a good number of immigrants refugees and undocumented in our community with your great experience. How would you be able to serve this population through this new role on the Human Rights Commission?

▶ 57:02 Speaker 11: well This serving as a member of the commission. Obviously, it's a new. It's a new experience for me. So. I'm ready to learn. with whoever wants to work with me with my colleagues, but in terms of protecting the rights of people who are immigrants. I think the first thing that I would do is to educate them to make sure that they are they can easily become You know. serving citizens, you know whether whether they do it by through education, you know protecting their families protecting other people's rights and become lower abiding productive citizens. So that being the goal we can help them individually or collectively towards that goal. So the first thing is obviously education for them to know about things that they have to know about the city for example enabling them to navigate as effectively as possible through the system and supporting families who like their children to be educated one thing I find among immigrants that they value education a they do and You know knowing that then in my mind, I would say how can we protect and advance that to a level will there their children will become law-abiding citizens and also leave a productive life.

▶ 58:57 Maya Jamaleddine: That's great. I'd probably you know, I'm an immigrant as well and I did do receive calls or requests from immigrants that you know, they do have some concerns about you know, navigating through the system sometimes or difficulties. So this is a great way to to support this population by educating and reaching and Outreach. We do have a lot of resources such as you know, Temple Beth Shalom and other churches and the library as well. They do support our immigrants through, you know different ways. So this is also a great way to collaborate with this is just a suggestion. Yeah. Thank you so much for stepping out.

▶ 59:59 Speaker 11: Yeah. Can I add a point? Yeah, I would say. You know having a center where immigrants could just freely visit and share their experiences and also share, you know, learn more about how the system and the services working here from one central place would be very helpful. because being an immigrant is not it's not easy, you know navigating through the system is what keeps people from actually ensuring that Their needs are met. So having a center. that may be Publicly supported, you know either by the city or whoever and then for the immigrants to know that they have a place where they can go to and then have some information that they need in order

▶ 1:00:54 Maya Jamaleddine: to move forward. Thank you so much, and I'm looking forward to you know. steps and Hope fully see some activities around us. But if

▶ 1:01:04 Paul Brodeur: you don't like a little bit of an update, that's a little bit off topic is with the expansion of our ability to provide social services or social worker Services. We have seen an increase in those kind of inquiry. I'm happy. Just I mean, we're still figuring it out a bit but we have been very successful in helping folks that present with real immigration status related issues in terms of really housing Healthcare among other things. So that is and you know, that was something that you've been long long been an advocate for and we're

▶ 1:01:41 Maya Jamaleddine: starting to make progress. Yes. Definitely. I agree with you definitely there is a progress. I I do have some consider Sometimes some immigrants Unfortunately. They do not they're unaware of this service that we have in our city and it takes just a question for them to learn that we do have the service so would appreciate that that we can just push it through and just you know do this Outreach to educate them like You know our great candidate just mentioned that we do we do this Outreach and educate that's

▶ 1:02:17 Paul Brodeur: trust incredibility, too. Yes always work in progress.

▶ 1:02:21 Maya Jamaleddine: Well, thank you so much.

▶ 1:02:27 Jen Grigoraitis: Passage made by councilor Cassidy seconded by Vice chairman glorelli. Is there any discussion? Seeing none all in favor why any opposed that passes unanimously? Thank you very much Dr. Thank you, and this will be recommended to the full Council.