NewVue Communities Celebrates Stewards’ Graduation Ceremony

NewVue Communities celebrated the graduation of more than 100 community members from its Stewards Leadership Development Training Program during a ceremony at the Fitchburg Art Museum on Wednesday, June 26.

Decked out in caps and gowns and joined by friends, family and community leaders, the stewards received certificates for completing training as either Childcare Entrepreneur Stewards, Stewards of the Business Plan, Financial Stewards, Community Wellness Peer Stewards and Art Stewards. Several community members completed as many as three training courses between the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024.

NewVue’s Executive Director Marc Dohan said the stewards will now bring their knowledge into the community through employment or community activism. “There are now more leaders driving change and more training ideas to improve our communities,’ Dohan said. “These stewards are making an impact beyond our expectations and truly represent what NewVue is – a resident-led organization.”

Ten of the graduates, including several Haitian refugees, are women currently living in a local homeless shelter. Through the training, the women have gained skills that will help them find jobs as childcare workers, enabling them more to become more self-sufficient. “This is the first program of its kind to address the Haitian refugees who don’t have a place to live,’’ said Beth Robbins, a former steward graduate who helped create a childcare entrepreneur program to address the urgent need for childcare in the community. “This provides an avenue for them to start training and get to work.’’

Fabienne Celestin left Haiti in July 2023 seeking a better life. She’s been living in a local shelter for the past year and recently completed childcare training. She hopes to get a job working with children and eventually become a nurse. “I’m very excited,’ she said. “It will change my life.’’

NewVue developed the Stewards Leadership Development Training Program in 2018 and typically offers nine training courses each year. Training cohorts usually meet for two hours once a week for eight weeks. More than 400 stewards have graduated since the start of the program, said Francisco Ramos, NewVue’s director of community organizing.

Stewards have gone on to create new projects or trainings to help meet the needs of the community in areas such as education, the environment, health and wellness, employment, and civic engagement. “We tell the stewards to follow their heart,’ Ramos said. “We ask them to follow what is calling them – what keeps them up at night – and plant seeds that might take some time to sprout.’’ For example:

• Stewards are working with the Fitchburg Public Schools to offer English as a Second Language classes free of charge; they also created a bilingual resource guide for new immigrant families.
• Environmental stewards have secured state and federal grants to develop nature-based climate change initiatives in the region.
• About 30 women now run their own businesses, providing childcare to 200 children and generating incomes for their families.
• Art stewards have painted murals to beautify the city and created a variety of community events including a chalk festival.

Mayor Sam Squailia, a past steward graduate herself, gave the keynote speech at the ceremony. She said the impact of the steward program continues to grow each year, creating new paths of community engagement that has led to transformative change in neighborhoods.  “This program is not just about training but empowering individuals to be leaders and change makers,’ she said.