February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Patricia Grogan can’t sympathize. The 31-year-old Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone, native is the newly appointed director of the Aisling Irish Center in Yonkers. She relishes her new post and all the good and bad it come with.
Grogan is wasting no time in tackling the issues facing the Irish immigrant community and said this week that she “looked forward to working for a non-profit organization.”
Two months into her new job, Grogan says she has yet to see a slow day. She had not worked with the center before taking over as director job, but, rather, used its services as a young Irish immigrant.
“I was aware of the center, living in the Woodlawn/Yonkers area,” Grogan said. “They have a great profile within the community.”
Grogan’s interest in giving back to her community had led her to volunteer with non-profit organizations prior to joining the Aisling Center. Most recently, she had worked as an international computations analyst with Goldman Sachs prior to her appointment as Aisling’s director.
“It was in the financial sector,” Grogan said of her previous job, “and that experience helps me here with budgeting and so on.”
She now manages what she calls “your typical non-profit work setting.”
The Center is mostly volunteer run, and has a board of directors, all of whom are volunteers. Grogan notes the importance of those willing to give their time for the Center, and how vital they are to its success.
Irish immigrants founded the Aisling Irish Center in 1997. Their goal was to help the transition for other immigrants through assistance with finding work, dealing with immigration forms, and counseling. By offering arts and computer classes for a nominal fee, it also provides a communal gathering space for the Irish community in the area.
Grogan said that while it is always an important issue, the issue of changes to immigration laws have been bringing in the most queries recently. She is especially concerned with the recent move to rescind driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.
“I know of many people leaving their jobs or winding down their businesses to return to Ireland because they won’t be able to work without their licenses,” she said.
Another part of the immigration dealings is border-crossing disputes, according to Grogan.
“We’re always handling phone calls to coordinate people’s movement,” she said, “and we’ve had to handle four deportations in the last two weeks. It puts a lot of people in desperate situations.”
Grogan is also concerned with making sure those eligible for visas know how to go about applying for and procuring them. Aisling’s workshops on visas are well-attended affairs, many of which feature immigrations lawyers and experts available for consultations.
“We actually have a high percentage of college-educated immigrants coming over,” Grogan said. “The challenge is getting them aware of the visas available. It’s the key issue for the Irish immigrant community, especially lately, even though the categories narrow all the time.”
An issue not mentioned as often as immigration, health insurance, is also of great importance to many immigrants Grogan comes across.
“Documented or not, people want to know where to access it and how to pay for it,” Grogan said.
Aisling also offers counseling services with two psychotherapists who are each in one evening a week for confidential appointments, and Catholic Charities rents office space at the Center, where it performs pastoral care services.
For her part, Grogan said she would like to “continue the high level of quality services that Aisling’s founders aimed for.”
Grogan would also like to see the promotion of Irish culture continue within the Center. It currently offers Irish language and dancing classes in keeping with that mission, something she hopes to expand upon.
“People’s perceptions are that we are only here for help with securing accommodation and work,” Grogan said. “[But] we offer much more.”
Vital to the plans for Aisling’s continues success would be the continued aid of donors and volunteers who make the Center what it is. While not funded in any part by the local, state or federal government, the Irish government aids the Center’s work.
“Our next step would be to secure finding from local and state governments,” Grogan said.
She notes that the donors are a vital part to the Center’s longevity.
“We encourage everyone who wishes to get involved . . . there is a great spirit of camaraderie here,” she said.
Grogan is looking forward to her continued work with the Center, in no small part thanks to the community they serve.
“I have met fabulous people and we have great volunteers,” she said. “Woodlawn and Yonkers has a negative connotation to some, but the truth is that this is a great community to work in.”