Melaak Rashid

My name is Malak Rasheed, and I work in the nonprofit sector as the Development Director for Smart Development. We serve newcomer communities.

Smart Development is an immigrant-led organization that provides wraparound social services and housing support to newcomer communities. We offer basic needs donations for families when they first arrive, help them connect to workforce opportunities, provide housing navigation services, and connect them to cultural support systems they may need during their integration process.

I was actually the only child born in the United States out of all my siblings. My parents are Palestinian refugees, with my mother being born and raised in a refugee camp and my father growing up in Venezuela, as his family left the West Bank to escape war. Out of my siblings, my sister and I are the only ones who were born and raised within the United States fully, and grew up mostly in Cleveland originally living in Brooklyn, New York. As the youngest of 6 kids, It’s a unique experience for me because I grew up as a child of refugees, with a different experience both as a child and even now as an adult than my own siblings who grew up as immigrants themselves.

I love how easy it is to feel connected to your own community in Cleveland. There’s a large Palestinian and broader Arab population, and you can quickly find connections to other cultures. For example, you can go to Parma to connect with the Eastern European community, visit Little Italy, or go to Asia Town. Cleveland also has the cultural gardens along MLK and by University Circle, which I think is really special. I’m not sure if any other city has something like that, and it’s one of the reasons I feel so connected and proud to be here.