Somali Bantu community members began to arrive in Chelsea and the Greater Boston area in late 2003 early 2004. Our community member’s arrival in the United States was the last leg of a very long journey to find a place to call home. Somali Bantu community members are the descendants of slaves brought into Somalia from neighboring African countries. When slavery ended, the Somali Bantus were relegated to a second class citizen status. The only available jobs were in farming and agricultural work. We were not allowed an education or the attainment of literacy. We were not allowed to vote. In 1991when a civil war began in Somalia, community members were subjected to robbery, rape and murder by both warring majority Somali factions. Community members began to flee on foot to Kenya in 1992. Violence and discrimination was commonplace in the Kenyan refugee camps as well. Many community members petitioned the United States for asylum. As Somali Bantus, we had been isolated within Somalia as second class citizens. We were then isolated and segregated in refugee camps in Kenya. Upon arriving in the Greater Boston area in late 2003 early 2004, the Somali Bantus experienced a de facto isolation and separation in the United States as we could not access service offered to majority Somalis because of language barriers and cultural barriers rooted in our history. Additionally, agencies that might have helped were unaware of the complexities of our situation. The Shanbaro Community Association (SCA) was started as a mutual aid society in late 2003. A group of community volunteers helped other community members by accompanying them to appointments, translating, and completing paperwork as we were able. The Somali Bantu community came in contact with the Chelsea Collaborative (Collaborative) in the fall of 2007 through the Collaborative’s Social Capital Campaign, a project to hold 1000 conversations with the community to assess community strengths and needs. Bantu elders and community members met with Collaborative staff and talked about the difficulties they faced in accessing services and support. In April 2008 the Collaborative helped the Bantus convene stakeholders from Chelsea non-profit and public agencies for an open discussion about Somali Bantu needs and how to address them. For the Bantu community, this was their first exposure to the power of community organizing. The Collaborative offered office space, support and sought funding for a Bantu community organizer. With the generous support of funders like NEGEF, the SCA formalized itself as a committee under the Collaborative’s umbrella in January 2009. The SCA works very hard to address the direct service needs of its community and to develop its community members’ skills and leadership capacity to empower the Somali Bantu community. *Goals* In order to continue to develop the Association and support the Somali Bantu community our goals are: * To continue to work with the Collaborative’s Development Coordinator to identify foundations and funding sources to support the SCA’s community organizers and program expenses. * To continue to advocate for the inclusion of Maay Maay in the language capabilities of local agencies, including government, the courts, healthcare, schools and non-profit organizations. * To support the above goal and increase members’ skills and its capacity, the SCA is working with the Boston Interpreters Collective to hold a series of trainings on interpreting for SCA members with high English proficiency. * To continue to have SCA volunteers and staff receive training in community organizing, social justice, and leadership development from a variety of sources, including the Collaborative. * To have Executive Committee members take part in trainings to understand their roles and responsibilities and community organizing tactics and strategies to support the community. * To hold a political systems and voting rights training for new Somali Bantu United States Citizens * To have 3-4 Somali Bantu community members who are citizens hold a Citizenship Training for 10 Somali Bantu community members; the 10 community members take part in a Citizenship Clinic with Greater Boston Legal Services to assist in understanding and filling out the application. * To support both their children’s and the larger community’s awareness and knowledge of their culture and religion. * To identify a location to hold religious classes as well as volunteer teachers and start one religious education class for community youth before the end of Fiscal Year 2012. * To have 10-15 Somali Bantu community members take part in the Chelsea Latino Immigrant Committee facilitated Leadership Institute simultaneously run for both communities. To have Somali Bantu community members take part in both the separate and joint components of the Leadership Institute. To hold a joint graduation ceremony for both communities. * To have Mass General Hospital’s Healthy Chelsea Initiative hold nutritional workshops for Somali Bantu community members to address healthy eating habits with a budgeting component as less healthy food is often more affordable pricewise. * To continue to develop the relationship with Temple Emmanuel; Launch and successfully maintain the Community Garden in the Temple’s side yard from June 2011 through fall 2011. * To continue to assist Bantu community members to understand and navigate government, healthcare, and non-profit systems, to understand and complete required paperwork for services, to interpret for community members during meetings with social service providers.