ESL Students Share Their Stories and Talents! We were so impressed with the amazing stories, photos and talents shared by our residents, ESL students and members of the Casa community- including a few of our ESL teachers and staff members! What we loved most was seeing the confidence exuded by our ESL students. For some [...]
At Casa Marianella, we're happy to discuss what it means for our residents to become 'self sufficient'. We use this term regularly to describe successful exits from Casa Marianella that lead to affordable housing and sufficient income. With the great city of Austin, TX becoming increasingly tough to find affordable housing in, our definition of affordable [...]
Recently we had the pleasure of speaking with Justin Estep, Director of Immigration Legal Services at Texas Here To Stay, about Texas Here To Stay's mission and relationship with Casa Marianella. How did Texas Here To Stay come about and how did you personally get involved? Texas Here to Stay came about almost immediately after [...]
We had a blast at our Fall 2016 Show and Tell event. Our residents worked hard the week before to prepare for their presentations. ESL Levels 1, site 2, case and 3 combined within the level 2 classroom and students took turns standing in front of the class and presenting what they have worked on. [...]
Two of our very own wonderful ESL teachers, Blair Pettit and Grace Wasson, have started teaching a ceramics class at Posada Esperanza! Blair and Grace have been creating ceramics for a while now, and have brought their talents to Posada to help the women discover a new creative outlet to relieve their stress. Their goal [...]
UT Austin’s latest exhibit, more about Spatial Stories of Migration and Detention, highlights how architecture impacts detainee punishment. Casa Marianella is proud to be a part of this exhibit, with some of our residents lending their stories and experiences to UT Austin’s exhibit for the hope that their voices will help improve the current detention [...]
An Excerpt from a Night in February by Erin Edmonds Context: At Casa Marianella’s Adult Shelter, we operate on a 24-hour clock. Staff is asked to pull a night shift once a week. As of late, we’ve been operating on overflow. Maximum capacity: 38. Housing Reality: 52. 52 residents. We’ve managed to wedge 14 extra [...]
Former Posada resident, Hilda Ramirez, has garnered local media attention this week for telling her story of migrating to the United States, living for over a year in detention and now, living in fear of deportation. Ramirez and her son are one of the families potentially targeted by the recent round of deportation raids. Ramirez [...]
The Be Thankful Project was started in late 2015 to help improve the conditions at Posada Esperanza. A local Austinite saw that there was a strong need for certain items, ambulance and she rallied her Facebook friends and family to help the shelter in any way they could. We spoke with the organization’s founder to [...]