On Wednesday, June 27 St. Mary’s Bank coordinated and sponsored a seminar on Comprehensive Immigration Reform held at the Millyard Museum. St. Mary’s partnered with the law firm of GoffWilson to host the event, featuring Attorney John Wilson as guest speaker.

Attorney Wilson provided an overview of the recently proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation in Congress. The seminar was designed to educate the invited guests about current immigration issues as well as the legal implications of the proposed legislation.

Tom Champagne, Director of Community Outreach, also offered an overview of St. Mary’s Community Outreach Program, a set of core programs designed to meet different specific needs of the underserved families in the community. This population includes low- to moderate-income, minorities and non-English speaking people. The Community Outreach Program is delivered through partnerships with local non-profit agencies, many of whom attended the seminar.

In addition to providing education to the approximately twenty participants, the seminar included an open forum for people to share information and discuss ways in which the various groups might be able to work together on immigration issues. Non-profit agencies from Nashua, Manchester and Concord that serve immigrants through a variety of programs were invited and participated in the seminar. Non-profits included the YMCA of Nashua, the City of Nashua Urban Program, the New Hampshire Immigration Project, the New Hampshire Minority Health Coalition, the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Southern New Hampshire Services, The Way Home, the NHCUC Latino Initiative and New Hampshire Catholic Charities.

John Wilson is President and Partner of GoffWilson, P.A., an immigration law firm with offices in Concord, NH and Paris, France. He also serves as Commercial Consul to France for the State of New Hampshire. He is the co-founder of the GoffWilson firm which focuses exclusively on immigration law throughout the United States.