Haitian Heritage Night Video Montage

Haitian Heritage Night Slideshow

NY District 14 Senator Malcolm A. Smith Honors HAUP’s Executive Director

Congratulations to Mrs. Elsie Accilien, HAUP Executive Director, who was honored at NY District 14 Senator Malcolm A. Smith’s 10-Year of Service Celebration and Dinner Dance at Antun’s on April 9th, 2010.

Edwin Paraison, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad to Visit HAUP today at 2PM

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 – We are pleased to announce that Haitian-Americans United for Progress, Inc. has been selected as the Haitian community organization which Mr. Edwin Paraison, Minister of Haitians Living Abroad, will visit today at 2pm. HAUP is located at 221-05 Linden Boulevard, Cambria Heights, NY 11411.

WE ARE INVITING YOU TO BE PART OF THIS DIALOGUE.
KINDLY CONFIRM YOUR ATTENDANCE BY CALLING SOPHIE CHERY-DORVAL AT 718 527 3776 X 17.

This is the first visit of a high Haitian government official to NYC. His portfolio includes facilitating Haitian Diaspora involvement and investment in Haiti either through for-profit or non-profit initiatives. The Diaspora and its allies have responded generously to the emergency. Support is needed
for the long term, and greater involvement of Diaspora is crucial to Haiti’s future.

Paraison, who became Diaspora Minister in November 2009, is an Anglican priest, diplomat and human rights advocate. He resided for more than 26 years in the Dominican Republic, where from 1986 to 1994 Mr. Paraison served
as the Director of the Anglican Church’s Haiti division.

In 1994, he received the prestigious “Anti Slavery Award” from Anti-Slavery International (ASI) in recognition of long-standing efforts to promote the
rights and welfare of Haitian migrant workers in the sugar cane fields of the Dominican Republic.

As a career diplomat, Mr. Paraison served at various levels for nine consecutive years, including in the position of Consul General in Dominican Republic in 2004.

In 2005, Mr. Paraison created the “Fundacion Zile” to promote cooperation and solidarity between Haiti and Dominican Republic. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Paraison served as the representative of the Haitian Diaspora for the Caribbean and Latin America in the committee for National Dialogue set up by the transitional government.

NY Mets Calendar Now Includes Haitian Heritage Night!

Haitian Heritage Night on April 7, 2010, co-hosted by HAUP, has been added to the NY Mets calendar, and can be viewed here: http://newyork.mets.mlb.com/nym/schedule/themedates.jsp

NY Mets to Honor Haitian-Americans United for Progress at Citi Field’s First Haitian Heritage Night

NEW YORK, March 31, 2010 – Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP) will receive the NY Mets Spirit Award on April 7, 2010 in recognition of its achievements and service to the Haitian community over the last 34 years. On this occasion HAUP will launch a unique partnership with Queen’s renowned baseball team which includes:

• Celebrating Haitian Heritage Night on the 2nd game of the baseball season at Citi Field. This year, the NY Mets are scheduled to play their second game against the Florida Marlins.

• Providing HAUP with 100 percent of the sale of tickets entrusted to HAUP. The charitable gifts will support local and on the ground relief efforts.

• HAUP, Verizon, NYC District 27 Councilman Leroy Comrie, and NYS District 10 Senator Shirley L. Huntley – will be on the field for a pre-game presentation of the Mets Spirit Award.

• The Experience at Sacred Heart of Jesus Roman Catholic Church – a musical group co-founded by Elsie Accilien, and composer/songwriter Michael Capobianco — will perform the American National Anthem.

• Grammy Nominee and Heavytone Entertainment Group Recording Artist, Katia Cadet – will throw the opening pitch of the game.

• Citi Field will provide several HAUP information tables throughout the field, where HAUP representatives will provide resources about their organization and how spectators can help raise funds for Haiti relief.

Tickets are available. Call 718 527 3776 x 17 or 347 327 8500 to order through  HAUP.

Haiti Earthquake: Our Response

Our phones began to ring as soon as news of the earthquake came through the airwaves and the internet. They rang more frequently and even seemed louder as the extent of the devastation became known, sending emotional shock waves through our offices and  the Haitian community in New York.

In the last three weeks, while attending to the concerns of our constituents, providing accurate information and reassurances when possible, we have taken pain to inform public opinion and welcome the many gestures of care and solidarity of friends and neighbors.

On January 18, The local Asian American leadership, joined by local black, white and Hispanic leaders, welcomed Elsie Accilien, executive director of Haitian Americans United for Progress, a Cambria Heights nonprofit aimed at helping New York City’s Haitian-American and other immigrant communities, to the event by donating more than $3,000 to charities working to help the people of Haiti. You can read the rest of the story here.

http://www.yournabe.com/articles/2010/01/21/queens/queenspiirwks01202010.txt

On January 27 and 28, Ms. Accilien provided answers to questions posed by the readers of the New York Times. The questions and answers can can be found here through this link: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/answers-about-new-yorks-response-to-haitis-earthquake/

NY1 broadcast a story on a Haitian orphanage supported by HAUP.  You can read the story here http://www.ny1.com/8-queens-news-content/top_stories/112356/orphanage-director-plans-return-to-haiti

Accilien was quoted in “Three Steps to Making Smart Haiti Donations,” an article published by the NYT about the right way to help Haiti. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/nyregion/24critic.html 

We would appreciate your feedback on the actions we have taken and the guidance we have  provided so far. Please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Note to Census and NYC Officials: Cooperation With HAUP is Key to Reaching Haitian Populations in New York

The Committees on Civil Rights and Immigration of the New York City Council held a joint hearing on  November 19 to discuss the city’s efforts to ensure a higher count next year when the census is carried out, and to vote on two resolutions which expressed the sentiment of the City’s elected leaders that persons incarcerated  in far away places should be added to the count of the community that they lived in prior to being thrown in jail. The Haitian-Americans United for Progress was invited to testify. Following are the relevant parts of the testimony.

Ensuring that New York City’s Hard to Count Populations Are Identified
and Encouraged to Participate in the 2010 Census

Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued Executive Order No. 127 five months ago to emphasize the city’s determination to ensure that the 2010 census reflects more accurately the city’s population size. It is an open secret that in the past New York City may have lost its fair share of federal dollars because the census count has regularly failed to reach the hard-to-count populations in the city. The Census 2000 response rate for New York City was 55 percent, well below the national average of 67 percent. Given that a lower than average response rate deeply affects the quality of life in our communities, we wholeheartedly subscribe to plans and campaigns that aim to get residents of our great city to provide information to the census either via mail or when the census workers come knocking at their doors.

Everyone who is involved with the census count understands that networking and extensive cooperation are essential to the success of this effort. The cooperation of our group, the Haitian-Americans United for Progress (HAUP) is a given. In recent weeks, we have welcomed to our offices several Census district leaders to whom we have provided information about the communities that we serve in Queens and Brooklyn and with whom we have shared outreach strategies. We believe that the Haitian immigrant communities – which are concentrated in the Greater Cambria Heights area of Queens and in East Flatbush, and Crown Heights in Brooklyn – fit the definition of hard-to-count communities, because of language barriers, the level of misunderstanding that may exist as to where the information collected ends up, and doubts as to whether it will lead to positive difference in their lives. These obstacles can be overcome when confidence is built up through trusted institutions like HAUP.

Yet as we all know, trust does not spring eternal. It must be constantly nurtured and gained. We have gained much experience in doing just that through our 34 years of service delivery to our communities. It bears emphasizing that in this particular instance, trust is built and gained through a significant grassroots effort, which may be carried out via a combined volunteer and paid staff effort. In other words, it takes resources. Yet resources are woefully absent from the mix. Given the urgency of the hour and the benefits to the City of ensuring a higher than average census count, we strongly recommend that the City address this issue immediately. HAUP is prepared to help as much as possible, yet just like many other civic-minded organizations we have had to tighten our belts because of the recessionary squeeze. Providing resources to organizations like ours so that we can be involved in the grassroots efforts to get our communities to come out for the census is an investment that will be well worth it.

On Proposed Resolutions

Both of the resolutions before the Committees – proposed resolution 190-A referring to the legal residency of prisoners, and the resolution proposed by Council Member Seabrook – make sense.

Conclusion

We strongly recommend that there be closer consultation and cooperation with community-based organizations like HAUP which remains on the front line of efforts to ensure the smooth integration of new Americans of Haitian origin as well as those hailing from other nationalities. Our role as advocates and facilitators for the community members who seek our services makes us ideal partners with the city agencies that seek to develop winning strategies and plans. We know intimately the issues that they face. We can walk them through the system when the system itself remains unresponsive. If we are unable to do so, our failure is simply due to the lack of resources on hand. A stronger partnership with HAUP and other agencies like it should result in a greater capacity to deliver meaningful services to our constituents and empower them to take a more active part in the City’s well-being. That includes ensuring a high census count in hard-to-count communities.

Cambria Hts Haitian group gets $250K

cross-posted on Queens Village Times

By Ivan Pereira

Thursday, August 27, 2009 9:17 AM EDT

A Cambria Heights nonprofit dedicated to helping the neighborhood’s Haitian community received a major boost to expand its operations Tuesday.

State Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans) joined other southeast Queens elected officials outside the Haitian Americans United for Progress offices at 221-05 Linden Blvd. to award the group a $250,000 capital allocation.

Elsie St. Louis Accilien, executive director of HAUP, said the money will be used to help fund the organization’s new, larger headquarters.

“Through its dedicated staff and critical services offered, HAUP improves the quality of life for over 15,000 members of the southeast Queens community on a yearly basis,” Smith said in a statement. “The funds I have secured for HAUP will allow them to continue the extraordinary work they do for the Haitian and immigrant communities in southeast Queens.”

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