Hands Across the World: Evaluation Plan and Preliminary Results

Abstract

Hands Across the World (HAW) has four organizational goals for supporting newly arrived immigrants and refugees into American society. Their goals are cultural settlement, social adaptation, economic adjustment, and political integration. Established in October of 2013, HAW has worked over the last 18 years to serve newly arrived immigrant and refugee families via educational programming which is directly aligned with their organizational goals. HAW is an important resource in the St. Cloud, Minnesota community that works to address the complex relationship of integration into the United States and validating the extraordinary experiences of the newly arrived families they serve. The evaluation specifically looks at HAW’s programming. The educational programming that HAW offers is a complex system that involves volunteers, various participants of different nationalities and cultures, a culturally responsive curriculum, and various community partnerships. Additionally, programming must now be implemented during a global pandemic that has changed the way educational instruction has traditionally been done.