Neighbors Link Receives the Leviticus Cornerstone Award

Pictured: Cathy Rowan, Board Chair of Leviticus Fund, Carola Bracco, Executive Director of Neighbors Link and Greg Maher, Executive Director of Leviticus Fund.

In recognition of its work to build bridges between newly arriving immigrants and longer-term residents, Neighbors Link was the recipient of the Leviticus Fund Cornerstone Award for 2017.

The award was presented at the recent Annual Meeting of Leviticus’ Member investors, who are religious organizations with long histories of working in education, social justice and service-based ministries that serve the economically poor in the New York tristate area. The Cornerstone Award was created in 2015 to recognize a person or organization that has made extraordinary contributions to promoting poverty relief and social equity.

Since 1999, Neighbors Link has worked with the new immigrant population as well as the established community to ensure the healthy integration of both by providing empowerment and education programs for new immigrants, as well as creating volunteer opportunities for longer-term residents and viable partnerships with local organizations. This approach mitigates misunderstanding between the communities and promotes shared values. Neighbors Link’s primary service area is Mt. Kisco, but is expanding its services to Ossining and Yonkers.

In her remarks, Leviticus’ Board President, Cathy Rowan, recognized the impact of Neighbors Link’s work in serving over 3,000 immigrants in 2016 alone by providing English language classes, helping people apply for U.S. citizenship, offering health and legal services, and sponsoring creative social support programs for parents and children.

“The discourse around immigrants and immigration policies has become divisive in the last few years and it is essential that we recognize organizations that are trying to build bridges of cooperation and understanding,” said Greg Maher, Leviticus’ Executive Director. “Leviticus’ mission is rooted deeply in economic and social justice for all people and it is most fitting that Neighbors Link received this award for its work to welcome immigrants and support their integration as new residents into our local communities.”

Carola Bracco, Executive Director of Neighbors Link, in accepting the award offered examples of how current immigration policies are negatively impacting immigrant families and how local programs are promoting cultural education and sensitivity to the circumstances that force people to leave their homelands. "Neighbors Link is humbled to receive the Leviticus Cornerstone Award for our work with the clients we serve,” said Ms. Bracco. “By doing so, you honor and recognize that it takes tremendous courage, determination, and resourcefulness for a mother, a father, a sister or brother to leave their family behind and migrate to a foreign land with the hope to end the cycle of poverty they were born into."

Photo credit: Furnished by Leviticus Fund.