GRE ConsultingSamuel Mahaffy of GRE Consulting Associates joined Amanuel Yohannes, Executive Director of Salaam Urban Village Association (SUVA) to receive a grant award personally from the Mayor of the City of Seattle. The grant awarded through the Bill Wright Technology Matching Fund Program will fund utilizing technology to create intergenerational connections between elders and young people in the East African immigrant/migrant community, to enhance the technology skills of both young people and elders, and to further bridge the cultural gap between families from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and other countries and the City of Seattle. The outcome will be to decrease isolation within the East African community and to enhance civil engagement and responsible citizenship.
The grant application was prepared by Samuel Mahaffy of GRE Consulting in consultation with Amanuel Yohannes. It was one of only 23 projects that was approved by a panel of grant evaluators, and was funded in the full amount requested.
Samuel Mahaffy of GRE Consulting and Amanuel Yohannes of SUVA attended the Sept. 22, 2011 Energy, Technology & Civil Rights Committee meeting in the Seattle City Council Chambers. Representatives of Microsoft, the Seattle Public Schools, and industry and community leaders were seated around the table for the launching of the Great Student Initiative designed to provide technology access to more than sixteen thousand families in the City of Seattle who lack access to technology resources. The Council meeting was chaired by Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell and the grant awards were personally handed out by City of Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.
Grant awardees were provided with a tour of the City Hall facilities and a reception was hosted in the Office of the Mayor. The awarding of the grants was recorded to be played on the Seattle Channel Cable Network (www.seattlechannel.org).
The awarding of the grant culminated a long-standing partnership between GRE Consulting and SUVA. Both Samuel Mahaffy of GRE Consulting and Amanuel Yohannes of SUVA were born in Asmara, Eritrea. They share a deep care for the families from both Eritrea and other East African communities, many of whom have arrived in this country through refugee camps in Sudan and Kenya. The partnership between GRE Consulting and SUVA will seek other avenues for creative intergenerational engagement among young people and elders from East Africa and communities in the Seattle region that they now call home. Our perspective is that the East African community has much to give to the region in terms of the richness of their language and culture. We are grateful for the funding from the City of Seattle that will allow the often invisible East African community to be more actively engaged and better integrated into the larger community.
