WASHINGTON — With a former community organizer in the White House, now is the perfect time for Arab American community activists to visit Washington, D.C. The National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC) came to the capital last week to advocate for key issues and improve their contacts with federal officials and elected representatives.

Starting Wednesday, April 22nd, members of the 17-group network gathered to discuss a common advocacy agenda and share their concerns with government officials. They met members of Congress on Thursday and the White House on Friday.

NNAAC is “a national network of independent Arab American community-based social service organizations,” according to the group’s website. The groups in the network provide basic services to Arab American communities in Detroit, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, California, Florida and elsewhere.

NNAAC’s “Advocacy Week,” as it was called, had two main goals according to advocacy and civic engagement supervisor, Nadia Tonova. She said the group wanted to “raise our issues we’ve been hearing and bring attention to them on the national level.”

It also gives NNAAC members “a chance to come to DC, to meet their members and expand their advocacy skills.”

During the first day of meetings, the participants heard from other advocates and a government official.

The first speaker, Pat Reed of Independent Sector, discussed her organization’s advocacy agenda. Independent Sector represents the interests of the nonprofit community, and lobbies the government to pass laws to benefit community organizations and other public service groups.

She was the first speaker among several to discuss an important victory for all nonprofit organizations. The day before, President Barack Obama signed into law the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act.

The bill and the signing, which was a tribute to the senior senator from Massachusetts, Edward M. Kennedy (D), significantly boosts federal support for AmeriCorps and other community service programs that promote volunteerism. These programs provide funding and incentives for individuals to work in community service.

“Now, Ted’s story and the story of his family is known to all,” said President Obama before signing the $5.7 billion national service bill. The network will lobby Congress to authorize funding for the bill.

This bill benefits members of the network since they are heavily reliant on AmeriCorps volunteers for staffing. Tonova noted that the network was looking to expand the total number of volunteers from 75 to 100. Thirty-five AmeriCorps volunteers were placed in ten organizations during the first year of placements, in 2003.

Their’s is the only national AmeriCorps program serving Arab American community organizations.

Hizam Wahib, of the New York-based Arab American Family Support Center, came to advocate for immigration reform, one of the most pressing concerns for Arab Americans.

For Wahib, one of the worst scenarios Arab Americans face is when “the children are U.S. citizens and the parents overstayed their visas.” The parents find themselves in deportation proceedings because the backlog for family reunification is excessive. The immigration system too often divides families, which takes a horrific toll on both parents and children.

Similarly, legal permanent residents are being deported for minor “criminal acts,” sometimes leaving families in desperate conditions.

Wahib and the other organizers are looking for comprehensive immigration reform to fix some of the more egregious problems with America’s immigration system. Other speakers referred to a coming national campaign for a major overhaul of immigration, probably to follow the most recent legislative initiative at reform, which did not pass during the George W. Bush presidency.

The day’s final speaker, David Siegel, is the director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, a cabinet-level agency. He spoke directly to the problems Arab American community groups have in working to resettle refugees and asylees.

During the question and answer session with Siegel, several network members noted that Iraqi refugees were having problems finding work and often placed far away from Arab communities, leaving them frustrated and with little support. The aid provided by the government is often insufficient.

Of the 61,000 refugees settled in the United States last year, 22,000 were from the Middle East – 13,000 of whom were Iraqi. Voluntary agencies, or nonprofit, community, and faith-based groups, help the State Department and the ORR provide for the refugees. But the government is responsible for funding their support. Too often, the funds are scant, though this is expected to change under the Obama administration.

NNAAC’s hill visits and White House meetings focused on these Arab American issues, as well as on civil liberties and human rights, such as racial profiling, and access to human services, including health care, housing assistance and education.

The guiding philosophy of the Network is that “dynamic community based organizations”are central to empowering Arab Americans. Advocacy Week, the first national gathering of community groups in Washington, DC, was an important development. It gave community organizers access to officials and exposure to leading advocates in Washington.