Crafting a Future

Crafting a Future

The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians' Global Arts and crafts Marketplace helps local immigrants launch their own businesses

Aug. 15, 2019

Fatemeh Fard'due south immigration story is at once like countless others, and uniquely her own.

When, in 2007, she left Iran to join her American hubby, she gave up her homeland and her architecture career. But once in the U.S., she was forced to move effectually many times and her human relationship came to an end. Ultimately, she ended up in Philly with her iii children in tow. Living in a shelter for 2 years, in July 2022 she found housing in West Philly — and a world of possibility at The Welcoming Center for New Pennsylvanians .

Through English classes, The Center helped Fard improve her communication skills; through mental wellness services, she found back up for her depression and PTSD. With her background in compages, making art and crafts came naturally to her. In the donations people would drib off, she saw possibilities for what they could be used to create—needlepoint, drawings, secondhand piece of furniture, and much more. And she was encouraged by the Welcoming Center to turn her passion into profit through the Global Craft Market.

"My message to everybody in this community is that we should help these communities get meliorate," she says. "I proceed getting better and I want Philadelphia to know that this community helps people similar me. And we practice go ameliorate, and it'southward special to then help more people."

"I see something that y'all will never run into. This is my feeling. I experience everything, not with my eyes, with my eye, and it's easy for me," Fard says of her innate artistry.

The Global Arts and crafts Market provides support and increases visibility of 10  immigrant entrepreneurs at a time. Some of them are graduates of their business training program, some were referred to them past other vendors, and some, like Fard, were brought into the program when other staff recognized her creative abilities. Through the program, Fard and others attend workshops on bookkeeping, marketing, phone-based photography, financing, and more. After, The Welcoming Eye continues to provide technical support, holds more than workshops, and provides back up to observe new vending spaces in Philly.

Founded in 2003 by Anne O'Callaghan, an immigrant from Ireland, The Welcoming Center has helped more than 17,000 immigrants from over 150 countries settle into new lives in Philadelphia. Global Craft Marketplace is ane of several programs intended to help immigrants make their ain way financially, including English for Entrepreneurs classes, business technical help and modest business workshops. That addresses a reality in Philly: PEW reports that nearly i in v workers in Philadelphia is an immigrant, a 69 percent increment since 2000; and Philly is domicile to nearly 50,000 immigrant entrepreneurs .

These programs and classes allowed Fard to aqueduct her artistry into her ain shop, Strong Women Designs, the name a nod to how stiff she has had to be. The programme enables her to sell her wares each Saturday through October at Reading Terminal Market, and regularly at Red Street Pier, and The Oval. Her appurtenances include ceramic and acrylic plates, glass and ceramic jewelry, vases, sculptures, and whatever else Fard dreams up that calendar week. Other vendors include Egyptian Traditions, which partners with craftsmen in Egypt to sell housewares; a Panama chapeau shop, Yaku Wear from an Ecuadorean immigrant; and Mucho Mache, which sells papier mache crafts.

To Fard, the shop is more than than a business proposition; it'due south therapeutic. "It takes my depression away and makes me feel amend," she says. She also sees her path every bit a vehicle for helping others: She hopes to begin visiting shelters and helping people replenish their apartments using her gift of transforming secondhand items into art.

"My message to everybody in this community is that nosotros should assistance these communities get better," she says. "I continue getting ameliorate and I want Philadelphia to know that this customs helps people like me. And we exercise get better, and it'due south special to then help more people."

Photo via Cherry Street Pier

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/crafting-a-future/

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