Carola Otero Bracco
Lives in: Mount Kisco
Works in: Mount Kisco
Title: Executive director
Company: Neighbors Link
Accolade of Interest: Circle of Giving Award 2009 recipient, Westchester Community Foundation
Carola Bracco started her involvement with Neighbors Link by stuffing envelopes as a volunteer.
Now, she is executive director of a Mount Kisco mainstay connecting immigrants and the community ”“ 10 years in operation and with a host of new programs to show for it.
She joined the board of directors in 2003 when the nonprofit was seeking to fill the role of executive director.
Bracco had worked in financial management for General Electric Corp. and Ford Motor Co., but recognized the opportunity in front of her.
“It became apparent to me through my volunteer work that this was an organization that I wanted to work with in a community I wanted to make a difference in,” she said. “I specifically wanted to choose Mount Kisco (to live in) because of the diversity and for my children to have some sense of their heritage.”
She paused, laughed warmly and said, “Does that sound cliché?”
The daughter of Bolivian immigrants who came to the U.S. in 1960, Bracco ”“ one of the youngest of nine ”“ said a shared struggle is keeping close cultural ties to one”™s country while assimilating into a new society.
“One of the first things people think about with immigration is, ”˜Why are they coming here?”™ and not, ”˜Why did they have to leave where they were?”™” Bracco said. “The decision to leave one”™s country and family takes a tremendous amount of courage and sacrifice. In the case of this community, most have come from Guatemala where there was a 40-year civil war that killed thousands and thousands of people.”
One of Neighbors Link”™s primary responsibilities is to introduce the immigrant population to the ways and means of their new community.
Likewise, for the non-immigrant population ”“ or as Bracco calls them, longer-term residents ”“ the nonprofit provides volunteer opportunities for students and adults to tutor immigrants in the English language.
Parenting programs through partnerships with local school districts are vitally important, she said.
“Many are trying to piece together part-time jobs to make ends meet, but we teach them what they need to do with their children in elementary school so they can go to college.”
Language is another key factor in integration, she said. Three years ago, Neighbors Link partnered with Westchester Community College (WCC) to run an English As a Second Language program.
“We”™ve heard from the business community that, for the first time, employees who have been struggling to learn English for years and who had been unable to advance, are now learning English.”
Like the collaboration with WCC, Neighbors Link has been sustained almost fully by community groups like the Friends of Neighbors Link and the northern Westchester donor population.
The group”™s government-funding was minimal last year; Bracco estimated it was less than $10,000.
Fundraising is also a source of income ”“ there are 10 events planned this year in honor of the 10th anniversary ”“ including the Festival de Primavera May 7.
