C's Father Detained: Family Needs Support

Hi everyone,

My name is Amy and I have been a college professor at the School of Visual Arts in NYC for about twenty years. One of our students recently contacted me for help. I'm going to refer to her in this post as C.

C is a first generation college student I had the privilege of having in class. Unfortunately, earlier this week, she got the news that her father was being detained by ICE. Her father has not been in trouble with the law, and was simply headed to work when he was picked up and then imprisoned. Her family is now in a situation where their main wage-earner isn't able to go to work and needs legal help, and, in his absence, C is in the position of having to potentially leave school to return home to provide for and raise her two brothers.

This is obviously devastating to her and her entire family. Her father is facing deportation as soon as later this week, and her family is scrambling to figure out what to do and how to go on.

I am fundraising for her and her family, to give them some basic funds for:

This is a situation that is in flux, and it's difficult to know what's going to happen or how much money they'll need to survive. I've been asked by the family to collect the money for them, as they're concerned about bringing any more attention to them, but rest assured that 100% of anything raised will go directly to the family. We may have to do an additional fundraiser depending on how things go, but for now I thought this was a good amount to start with.

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If you don't know me, hello! In addition to teaching at SVA for many years, I'm also active in my Jersey City community and have led many fundraisers for different causes and families. I helped to found JCMAS (the Jersey City Mutual Aid Society) which provides supplies and resources for lower income families and individuals in this city. I believe that often times, direct assistance to people in need is the best thing you can do, and it's in that spirit that I'm leading this fundraiser. I hope you will consider contributing.

As a longtime art teacher, I apologize for using such a cheesy stock image for this fundraiser, but we need to get this going fast to help this family out. <3