001Good evening. Thank you all who have come tonight for our family academy from Baltimore public schools. All those in person and those joining us um online. Tonight we have um a couple of special guests. So we have Fernandanda Sera from Source Hub, a great community partner who is always there to help families. Um we so appreciate that. Um Fernanda will be talking about some uh financial literacy um planning. Um and we have and from where the Selves Funeral Home will talk about uh some really important uh information about to pay for end of life. Thank you again. Thank you. Hi everyone. My name is Fernanda Syla. I'm going to be on this side cuz I decided to stay a little bit further out. Um so we have a nonprofit called Stars Hub here in Fall
002River on South Street and we offer a community with a bunch of programs. Um, and I'm going to go over what those programs are, but just so you know, our hours of operations are Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. Mondays, we see walkins. The other days, we need you to set up an appointment for us to uh provide services. Okay. On Mondays, we also have health connector and mental health at the office. Um, they see everyone without an appointment. It's um you get there, they come to see you. You don't need to set up an appointment. The services that we offer is quite a bit of immigration services. We help you prepare the forms. Um we do DACA, green card and work authorization renewals, citizenship applications, um family petition, change of venue, change of
003address with immigration, foyer request, foreign check. Um, we do contracts, I 10 application, and we're going to go over what that is in a second. Um, we also do life insurance workshops in different fields. Um, especially if you come from another country and you're trying to validate your diplomas from your country to here, we can assist you with that as well. Um, we do case management, translation, we, um, have a public notary with staff, rent assistance. work with those draft applications. Um, and just to go over that a little bit, it's a an assistance where if you pay a rent and it's past due, we can apply um it's a very easy application, but the landlord also has to do their part of the application and rent can pay up to $7,000 a year. Um,
004and again, the rent has to be laid. They need to have a certificate. um snap applications and that right there is our social um our social media and our page on [Music] Instagram. Right now we're going to go over the topics for this family academy which is navigating life's challenges and essential planning for families. Um, and we're going to go over the important documents that we need to have in hand. Some immigration case, finances, emergency planning, and also funeral planning. I know nobody wants to talk about that, but it's so important to have that information in hand. Um and I like to go over the small steps that lead to great achievements which we had to identify, analyze, um see the alternatives, plan and implement because we see nowadays in our community there's a lot
005of fear, right? And people are just afraid but they are not taking the steps to make sure that their family safe, the documents. Uh so it's very important for you to sit with your family and have those things uh in a folder in a that other people can find as well if you um can locate it. So those documents, travel authorization, birth certificates, and all of that. Um we're going to go over each one of them, too. Um the healthcare policy is a document that's free. You go online, you can download the form. You don't need it to be notoriized. Um you can put your information if if by any chance anything happens to you and you're not able to give any like let's say you're in a car accident and you can't voice your
006opinion and you can't talk that healthcare proxy gives the authority of someone else to make those uh decisions for you. The caregiver authorization form or power of attorney. Um so we're going to go with this first. This form is just a form for you to leave um filled out for another family member, friend, someone that you trust to care for your child. Um they will be able to make decisions about your school and um medical. This is not giving legal guardianship whatsoever and passport. If you are from another country and your child is born here or um even if your child was born in your country, it's very important that you have those up to date. Um a lot of people they have I'm going to use that example from Brazil. So we have kids
007here but then they don't have the appropriate documentations from our country, right? So, it's important for you to apply for the birth certificate, get the social security number from your country and have that in order because if anything happens to you, no one is going to have authority to do anything and get your child to you. The travel authorization is a very simple document that you can have in the child's passport. If you don't have anyone here in the US that can travel your with your child, you can make a travel authorization to airline. So there are options and it's important to have that set up as well. Um immigration documents. So this is a topic that I see our community struggling quite a bit. Um a lot of times we pay people that are
008not even sure who they are, if they're attorneys. Um, a lot of people are hiring just someone that has a nice um, social media page and they think they know what they're doing. Um, and then when you apply for your immigration case, you either are going to get a receipt notice or a notice of action. And there is going to have your receipt number, your A number, and you can track your cases yourself. So whenever you apply for anything with anybody, make sure that they are giving you a copy of those documents. Okay, this if you have an NTA, which is a notice to appear, your A number, which is the file number, is going to be up top. And that A number, you're able to check online your uh court dates, uh what's happening
009with your case. You can have an app on your phone, which I'm going to show you in a second, that has all that information, and you will get notified if anything changes with your case. Uh there's a lot of people that they will check and they're like, "Oh, my court date is only 2027." So, they don't mind um they don't care about checking it every week. And we see court dates changing from 2027 to now. And if you miss the court date aid, that can be very very bad complication on your immigration case. Um, so avoiding scams. Again, we see people hiring folks out of Florida and they do everything online. They make the payments and they never actually submit any documentation. Um, we've seen quite a bit of agencies, sorry, I'll slow down. We
010see quite a bit of agencies that are um putting their personal information on the forms. So, the client doesn't have any access at all to their immigration case. And when they are signing as an attorney, which they're really not, they are signing as a client themselves. So, they're creating a lot of problems and jeopardizing the client's case. And there is a website. I don't know why it's showing like that, but you can actually go online and check if someone is in fact an attorney. You get their full name. You put it in. If it's in Massachusetts, you're going to look for the Massachusetts website for the attorneys here. If it's in another state, just look on another state and put that name to make sure that they are licensed because a lot of times you
011see people just saying they are attorneys. Sometimes they were in another country, another life, but not here. Um, and if you're not able to get your documents from this person that you paid uh at the office, we do offer this service is the FOYA um request, which is the Freedom of Information Act. Everyone has access to their immigration case. You can order that online yourself. Um, if it's a very large immigration case, it's going to cost a little bit. It's not much at all. And it takes about the last ones we uh filed it took about a month to arrive. And there has all the communication from immigration um that they sent. It has the case that was sent to them. If you apply for asylum, you don't know what's in your application. There you
012will have a chance to see what was written on it, the information they placed. And with the Hoya, you can call immigration and you can get more information about your case. And I'm going to give you just an example that happened very recently. Um, this lady filed, they are withholding for documentations. And when we call integration, immigration says they can't find anything. They don't see her in the system. So, we filed a foyer request. And when that came in, the assignment application had the information all switched. The personal information had the client's name but didn't have the email, didn't have the phone number, the address, everything she was using to uh verify her identity with immigration was not correct. Um they said they were attorneys, they were not. They signed the client was submitting the
013application and they just made up a bunch of stories on that application. Um so it's very very serious. that's not something that can be fixed um easily. So, please be in charge of your immigration documents. Um don't just trust anybody with it. Make sure you have copies. Make sure you're checking the numbers online. Um for the foyer request, you do have to create an account with USCIS. Um here we have some of the um apps that are available. This one here, if you put in your receipt number, you will see how your case is going. Whenever there's movement in your case, you're going to get a notification. This here, the immigration EOR case status will show you when your court date is. Um, it's going to show you where that court date is, the decision
014on your case. And here is just the same thing, but online. So, if you go on Google and put check immigration support, you can click on that second link that appears. When you do click on that second link, this is what you're going to see. You're going to um accept. And here you're going to put your A number. And remember, your A number never changes. Once you have an A number, it's always going to be your A number. Um so, you're going to put that in. Submit. And here you're going to see all your court information. So I just put the yellow squares on top of the personal information from the client, but right here you can see that they have a court date on May 25th. It says the judge um right here decision
015emotion information. And just so you know, this um here is in Boston, Mass. But if you have a case in another state, you need to file a change of value. That change of value is going to allow immigration to move your case from one court to another court in the state that you're residing. In case you can't do that and your court is at current to be, we just had a client that um his partner was in Ohio. He came to us with just a week and immigration does ask for at least 3 months um in advance to do all the change. So when our client came to us and it was on Friday like last Friday, we filed that but we also went online um it's the webex website and we put webax and
016the judge's name and it appears on Google. It's the first link and you're able to log in and see the judge online. It's not recommended that you do that. You have to keep track of your stuff. Do the change the menu. But in case if you didn't know and you have a port coming up, please log on at least online so you don't miss out on an important port. So a lot of folks they get confused with the chain of address and the chain of venue. um change of address. When you go on the website, it only notifies the court that your address is now somewhere else. It does not change your case from a court to another. Um what is important for you to have access to if you don't have your I94 is
017to go online and pull that up. Um have a copy in hand, have those informations in the folder. Um so people if anything happens to you somebody else has that information has the A number and um this I'm going to go through them briefly. Um everybody like most people already know about the emergency planning guides for families. It's on the state's website. It has in different languages and it's a nice tool to have because it has all the links. It has a space for you to write down your children's information, doctors, um the school they go to, and on the USCIS uh page, they also have this welcome to the US to be immigrants. It's very useful because it talks about a lot of things that most of us have questions when we arrive. we
018don't know how things work and this they do a great job explaining step by step about a lot of things here in the US um one thing that we offer at source hub um it's the IT is the individual tax identification number this is used for folks who don't have the social security number um that is used to file taxes and it also um is used for other things, but usually immigrants are the ones who apply to have an IT. You cannot file an IT on the year that you arrived. There's a lot of accountants that will not tell you that. Um, you're going to go in, you say, "I need an IT." They're going to file and they're going to use that you came here in another day in another year. Okay? So, they're
019lying and they're not letting you know, but they want to get paid for the service. um through IRS rules, you can only apply for the exim of the p um when you've been here for over 6 months, okay? For the prior year. So with VIT, you can open a bank account in most banks. You can apply for a mortgage or other loans. Um it's very useful to show immigration that you're finding your taxes. So that does help you and also establish a credit history or open a company. So when you open a company with the IT, you can also apply for the EIN which is the employer identification number. And another thing is so important for you guys to know what's going on with your credit social with the social security numbers or with the
020IT. We have a lot of scams. I've seen um people purchasing cars and then they don't give you the car but they don't cancel the loan. So, I had recently as well a client who came in and she had uh she was trying to buy a car and they're like, "No, you're not approved because of this." And she was like, "I had no idea. I was never um given the car." But the car dealership never cancelled the loan that was given to her. So, she was being charged but never notified. No letters were writing in her mail in her address. Um so, there's a called Credit Karma. If you have a social security number, you can keep track of your credit score like that. Okay? If you don't, you can either um get a copy
021of your credit report by mail or sign on to Equifax. Um here I just go over briefly on what makes your credit grow. A lot of us we apply for credit card but we don't know uh what we have to do with it in order to get a good credit history. Um so 30% is how much credit you use. I'm just going to go to the other slides here. Um for example if your credit limit is a th00and you have to spend about 100 to 300 only 30% and make the full payment every month. Um, it shows that you're a responsible person, that you're paying your bills, you're not going over your limit, and the payment history as well 35% of your credit score. Um, then it has only 10% the types of credits you
022have. It's a loan, personal loan, um, credit cards, and then the credit score. Um, When you look up your credit, this is something you can look up on Google and get the other graph as well. But if it's between 300 and 579, it's poor and it goes from there. So a good credit score starts pretty much at 670. Um, when you try to buy a house, that's very important. Um, a lot of banks will take a credit that's good, but they prefer if you have a better credit score. So, this really helps you in getting loans, building your credit, and by the time you have a social security number, you can transfer all that history to your social. Um, and then there's apps um for to get organized with your bills. They're free and they're
023great because they will send a notification when a bill is due. Um, so I'm gonna give it over to our friends here who are going to talk about testament living will. But first I want to know if anyone has any questions. Yes. So her question is, I applied for the but I was here for six months. before that. So, I'm just explaining the same thing. Um, a lot of accountants, they will not going to explain that to you. Um, they are going to apply, but they're going to put another date. So, you're eligible to receive that from the IRS. Unfortunately, we see that happening every day. Um, sure. I hope that so when you apply for the acting you can't write here let's say I'm going to give you an example I am right here
024in 2025 and I apply in 2025 for the IT but when I apply for the IT I need to file my income tax so the income tax is from last year right we can't file an income tax in the same year So when that happens by IRS rule, you needed to be here in the country at least six months in the prior year. The translators are doing such a great job. Thank you. Amy on their live stream. I think we're good to go. Um, if you need any other services, don't hesitate to give us a call. I ask you to please leave a message and we will return your call. Okay. Thank you so much, everyone. [Applause] My name is Shannon. I'm a funeral director with Wear and Sullivan Funeral Home and I take care
025of pre pre-planning and just the importance of setting up your arrangement before something happens. So, I always say that pre-planning, funeral, or cremation services is part of estate planning. So, I don't know who here has heard of estate planning, but it's similar to taking care of your power of attorneys, your health proxies, your wills, sometimes even a trust if you have a house or other finances. And that takes place with an estate attorney. I always say that part of that or even really the final step is pre-planning the funeral or cremation arrangements. So we do all of this to protect our kids are could be spouses. It could be family sometimes even friends that are going to be taking care of the arrangements. So it just it's the inevitable. We all know we're going to
026experience it. We hope it's not for a long time but we never know. So, one of the things that we do is we meet with families and we give them a guide. So, we're part of a network of funeral homes called Dignity Memorial. One of our locations is right up the street on Winter Street. It's on top of the hill. And we can meet there. We can meet your families at the actual funeral home at your home if you're more comfortable. And we go over your options. So some people may want to be brought back to where they were born. So you might want to go back to Haiti, you might want to go back to Brazil, Portugal. We can help arrange that ahead of time so we know the steps and can go through
027the steps with your family of what needs to be done. So then at the time a passing doesn't occur and you say, "Well, what do we do?" We're doing it so that it makes an easier transition on what's going to be a difficult time for your family. Making it a little bit easier at the time. I don't know who here has experienced loss. Eventually, unfortunately, we all will. What we do is we ask a lot of questions. So we get a little personal because information like our legal documents such as the death certificate need to be filled out at the time of death and that's going to be the only legal proof of a passing has occurred. So, whomever your next of kin is, if you have again a house, if you have even a
028vehicle, you have accounts that need to be closed out, that's what your children are going to need to prove that taxing has occurred to get whatever is transferred over to them or to your beneficiary. When we meet with your family ahead of time, we we give them a planning guide. So, any of our dignity locations, we take care of that. We do have Portuguese speaking um colleagues as well as Spanish speaking colleagues. So we are able to translate. I just actually came from one Phil. So we do have different versions of the planning guide too. So we have a Portuguese, an English, a Spanish, and we even have in some cases different religious planning guide. So if you're Jewish, we also have that as well. We don't not yet. We do have we do have
029French though. I do have a French version. Um because I know that's a little bit close. Um so what we do with the planning guides again, we ask about 120 questions. So it's going to be your social security number, which a lot of people have a give have a hard time knowing it if you're waiting at the time to give that to us. And that's something that's needed and you have to contact at the time of passing. But then also it's going over even some of your family history that's needed. So even just answering some of those questions makes it take the burden off of your family from having to answer all those questions at the time and it really just becomes a review. We also go over if you want to be cremated, if
030you want a full body burial, sometimes we even have now green burial um which is basically just natural no inbombing, no preservation in your place in the earth. at a cemetery. So, we go over all of that. If we go over, do you want to be viewed? What kind of services are you looking for? Are you looking for something at a church, at the funeral home, um are you looking just for no services? So, we go through exactly what you want and then we price that out. So, with us, you can go on a payment plan because we know at the time not everyone can come up with the fee for a cremation or a funeral. We know it's not something um that's inexpensive. We know that it can cost a little bit. So, this
031just makes it more feasible for families is when you pre-plan, you can go on a three, a 10, a 5 year if you want payment plan. And then once that's over, your cremation or your burial is paid for. And then at the time, we just review everything we have on record and then you're able to get the services that you requested. When a family pre-plans, some people think, "Oh, pre-plan, that's great. We're done. No, you need to share it with someone. So, you need to share it with at least two people. So, I would do your closest relative. So, either your spouse or your children. And if you don't have either, usually it would be your siblings. And then share it with the second person, preferably younger um than yourself. So then if things go
032the way we think they will, that person knows what they need to do. And it kind of gives a a buddy system. So if you have both of those people there at the time, they can help support each other with figuring everything out. So it's again important to do it, write it and make it accessible to families. Again, if you ever do have questions about pre-planning or your different options if you again do want to go back or even I have some families um I have a church that I deal with and a lot of them travel to Nigeria. So, we have something called travel protection where what it is is if you travel 75 miles or more from your legal address and pass away unexpectedly, it would take care of flights and preparation to
033get you back here to Massachusetts if that's where you choose to be buried or cremated. So, it's something it's $599. It's a onetime fee. I have it because I don't want to be cremated, so I have to come back here. So even if I'm traveling to Florida, California, a different country, I can be brought back. So that's something that um we've found beneficial to families, especially if you do travel back home or even if you travel within the country. Again, really, it's just important. It's another step in making sure your family's protected. We think about protecting them while everyone's living. And a lot of times people don't think about protecting them once someone's passed away. So, it's just part of the estate planning, talking with a lawyer to go over information about a will and
034then talking with your funeral home of your choice to go over any everything. Does anyone have any questions? Well, thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for the presenters and uh we know that this topic is um has sensitive information sometime that we want to ask because um each of us individually may have our situation that we don't want to disclose here in public. That's why we reserve this moment at the end. So we have the two institutions here. Uh you can come to ask your question you know you can go to them individually to ask your question. So we have plenty of time that's why we reserve this moment at the end. So you can come and um talk to them and tell them what
035is your situation and ask information that you might u want to ask tonight. Uh otherwise, thank you so much for being here and again, thank you so much uh for the presenters.