Kajal S. Email & Phone Number

Oakland, California

Oakland, California, United States

• Coordinate the implementation and tracking of the program deliverables for the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth (OFCY) and Afghans Pathways to Wellness grants. • Facilitate and teach vocational English and life skills lessons to pre-literate, beginner and intermediate adult refugees and English language learners. • Facilitate and teach naturalization and citizenship classes to eligible adult immigrants and refugees. • Manage and support classroom volunteer activities and communications.

London, United Kingdom

- Leading West London Synagogue's implementation of the Young Eritrean Refugees Community Project, focusing on integration through cultural exchange and English Language Learning.- Designing holistic, age and cultural appropriate curriculum and facilitating relevant activities to create a safe and trusting space for young refugees and asylum-seekers.- Built from scratch a network of partnerships across local councils, faith communities and charities working with young asylum seekers and refugees.- Developing the life skills, cultural and civic education curriculum for young Eritrean refugees and asylum- seekers in London.- Managing safeguarding procedures, acting as the point of contact for 8 volunteers.- Managing the recruitment and training of volunteers.

London, United Kingdom

-UpRising is a national charity for young leaders, which provided leadership training to young refugees and asylum-seekers through the “Surviving to Thriving ” project in partnership with British Red Cross and the British Refugee Council.-Advised on curriculum design and implementation with regards to the specific challenges of working with young unaccompanied asylum-seekers with detailed focus on differing social and cultural values and the impacts of trauma within the workshop context.-Consulted with “Surviving to Thriving Project” leadership to ensure adequate safeguarding procedures were followed.-Started and managed activities with detailed attention to psychosocial needs and cultural norms to help young refugees and asylum-seekers feel safe and encouraged to make short films about the challenges they face in transition to life in the UK.-Started and managed activities and translation services for young Afghan refugees when needed during sessions.

Alameda County

-Managed a caseload of approximately 100 classrooms in the implementation of the “Story-Cycles” book-sharing program.-Designed and implemented new workshop contents to expand the existing offering to support newly arrived refugee families with young children in early learning and literacy.-Grew the refugee arm of the organization from its foundation to serving 50 refugee families per year.-Built and maintained relationships with educators, families, and community organizations through conducting early learning workshops, Read Aloud demonstrations, and participating in family literacy events.-Codified and managed SalesForce data on school partners, educators, community partners and funders for reporting and funding purposes.

Oakland, Ca

- Responsible for providing a range of resettlement services for newly arrived refugee families in Oakland.- Facilitated referrals to the internal teams and external resources for the family as appropriate.- Managed and monitored the family’s referral progress from enrollment to access.- Maintained detailed and consolidated case file on each family.- Conducted home visits as per federal government’s guidelines and safeguarding mandates.- Managed the partnership with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), Refugee and Asylum Seeker Student Assistant Program (RASAP), and Eastmont Wellness Center to coordinate school enrollment processes for newly arrived refugee children to the city of Oakland.- Advocated on behalf of refugee children and their families at the schools, addressing refugee children academic, social and psychological needs in school and classroom settings.- Supervised a team of 3 volunteers to facilitate the school enrollment process and conduct school orientation with refugee families.- Maintained relationships with the schools in the district through advocacy for the Early Childhood Education program, academic mentorship, after school and summer programs for newly arrived refugee students.- Managed and facilitated cultural orientation classes, designed to help refugees develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need in their first 30 to 90 days of arrival in the United States.- Developed, evaluated and updated the cultural orientation curriculum and teaching guide.- Recruited, trained and managed a team of 3-5 volunteers to support the cultural orientationprogram and activities.- Created and taught Cultural Orientation content specific to Special Immigrant Visa Holders (SIVs) from Afghanistan.- Managed a $30,000 Health grant awarded by the San Francisco Foundation.- Recruited and trained community health navigators to assist recent arrivals with navigating thehealth care system.

Oakland, Ca

• Instructed a basic computer literacy class to adult refugees parents. • Integrated an English as Second Language (ESL) curriculum and the computer literacy program to help refugees better understand the functionality of computer programs while learning English.

Oakland, Ca

- Managed a classroom of 12 children between the ages of 2 to 5 years old.- Developed and taught an early childhood education program with interactive lesson plans and with thechildren as the central actors in each activity.- Reported to the supervisor any observations of learning, social and cognitive difficulties.

Master'S Degree, International Child Studies

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Peace Studies And Conflict Resolution- Public Policy Minor

Human Security/Conflict Resolution

Attended the Summer Peace Institute in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica for a duration of six weeks. Participated in various seminars, lectures.