Program covers English, welding lessons while immigrants get on-the-job training

This foundation helps workers get training for a good job and also English lessons at the same time. DP

By Cindy Gonzalez, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

For years, Fred Amis funneled cash from his family foundation into established charities with history and tradition.

Then the Omaha philanthropist had a change of heart.

He wanted to see more direct results. Be hands on. Focus on urgent community concerns -- such as the integration of immigrants into their new homeland.

It's an approach longtime friend and foundation board member John Sunderman fondly calls "full-contact philanthropy."

Today that shift in strategy and foundation dollars is playing out at a steel company near downtown Omaha.

And it is transforming the lives of immigrants like Ernesto Ali of Cuba and Octavio Zinzun of Mexico.

"They give you something to start a new life," said Zinzun, 22. "Man, it is awesome."

Now a year old, the project was designed to speed integration through English classes, on-the-job training and a permanent paycheck. The idea was hatched when foundation managers were re-evaluating their efforts while debate over illegal immigration was raging nationally and locally.

Amis tapped another foundation, the Omaha Community Foundation, to conduct a needs assessment of immigrants. Language was identified as a top barrier to integration; employment surfaced as immigrants' No. 1 need.

The pivotal "aha" moment came, Sunderman said, when he remarked how difficult it was to find and retain qualified welders at his place of employment, Paxton & Vierling Steel Co.
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