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AAANY's family growing and about to get a lot bigger!

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We are so glad to have additions to an amazing team, the vast majority of whom has started with us since June. Ayisha, Aber, Zayd, Nourah, Omar, Katie, Kayla and Mohamad have all been constructing or strengthening programs that are about to start -- or just took off. On Monday, 9 Youth Community Organizers (YCO) worked with Ayisha, getting to know each other and discussing identity, getting inspired about the "why." It warms my heart to know that they visited Brother Cyrus up at CAIR today in what I have no doubt was an informative to hopefully transformative workshop. This program will culminate with these youth putting together the second annual youth summit in the end of August and empower the ongoing "AmplifYour voice" campaign.

On Thursday, July 5, 9 more youth will begin working with us for the next 7 weeks. The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) participants will range in age (14-20), race and languages --including Spanish and Urdu. Thanks to the Department of Youth and Community Development's SYEP program over 30,000 youth are able to be hired in NYC. Our SYEP's will have a variety of tasks: whether as camp counselors, administrative assistants, caseworkers, accountants, or doing voter registration, we are pleased to have a lot to do, teach, and produce! One of the major programs they will help with is Kitaab Camp; a 6 week summer camp that is fun, innovative, and geared to teach ELL (English Language Learners) or other at-risk youth ages 5 to 12.

The fabric of the community that we seek to empower needs your generosity to continue to grow. I could say, Click this link to donate. But more importantly, spread the love.  Come to the Bazaar this Sunday and make sure to invite your friends. This is our sixth annual Bazaar and each year it gets bigger and better.

-Christophe Jospe