Refugee Resettlement Program

In 2007 the St. Joseph County Chapter was awarded a grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County and an anonymous donor to initiate a Refugee Resettlement organizing project.  Details of the project are described below.

The American Red Cross is exploring the possibility of becoming a resettlement agency, and will meet with representatives of Church World Service in November, 2009.  For information on refugee arrivals anticipated in 2010, please click here.

Background and Need

A refugee is “a person outside of his or her country of nationality who is unable or unwilling to return because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”[1] For the purpose of this program, ‘refugee’ refers to individuals who fled their country of origin due to political circumstances, becoming refugees or asylum seekers. 

Though often chaotic, refugee’s arrivals in the U.S. are planned events through official channels.  Refugees usually arrive in the United States after some time spent in a ‘middle’ country; for example, many Liberian refugees come to the U.S. after spending years in refugee camps in Ghana or the Ivory Coast .  Refugees are permanently legal residents of the US and are eligible to begin the process for U.S. Citizenship; asylum seekers have temporary legal residence status and are provided a process for having their permanent status determined.  The assimilation needs are the same for both populations.

Refugee resettlement to St. Joseph County began in earnest in the years after the Vietnam War.  Houses of worship, in particular, offered resettlement to refugees from Southeast Asia , creating an informal network of volunteers who learned the resettlement process.  The United Religious Communities (URC) coordinated a portion of the work, and in time, Refugee Services of South Bend was founded as the local branch of statewide program.  Refugee Services provided staff to give immigration legal assistance and coordinated volunteers from the community to welcome and assimilate refugees as new residents in years that followed conflicts elsewhere in the world.  Most recent refugees have arrived from Liberia , Rwanda , Sudan , Iraq and Eastern Europe (ethnic Turks).

Though accurate statistics by Indiana counties are not kept, it is estimated that approximately 15% of refugees coming to the state (average 383 to Indiana per year since 2001[2]) become St. Joseph County residents.  A recent count of needs in St. Joseph County [3] estimates that approximately 30 refugee families, settled within the past two years, have not assimilated enough to be independent due to lack of sponsors or significant factors like education levels, illiteracy, and mental health problems.  These will be joined by five additional families who will arrive without sponsorship due to the closure of Refugee Services; their arrival is assured, however, as this was arranged prior to the agency’s closure.  Since 2000, an average 40 refugees have settled in the county each year.

Needs of Refugees

Refugees, upon arrival, need intensive assistance to adjust.  Most do not speak English, have limited formal education, have gone years without medical or dental care, have no money, and no awareness of American culture and practices.  A number have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and feel very lonesome and alienated.  And, within hours of their arrival, they must become eligible for Social Security, Medicaid, rental assistance, and start to learn to navigate the confusing and short term elements of their welcome to America .  Volunteers are needed to help find household goods for donation, to drive the refugees to numerous appointments, to assist with job searches, and to provide community connections and friendship to these new residents.    

Services

To assist with this gap in services, the American Red Cross proposes:

1. Establishment of a volunteer recruitment program to find host groups, translators, students and others willing to become assistants and mentors to recently arrived refugees, with an emphasis on organizing the existing community volunteers formerly with Refugee Services;
2. Establishment of supportive, collegial services that increase the ability of refugee families to gain independence, including support groups, classes, and other activities, and to eventually assume leadership of the program;
3. Development of community educational programming, designed to help the St. Joseph County community to better understand and welcome immigrants from refugees communities;
4. Development of orientation materials for volunteers and receiving communities;
5. Completion, within one year, of a feasibility study to continue the program through a mix of grant funding based on identified needs.

To accomplish this, the Red Cross has hired a caseworker whose tasks include helping to train and coordinate volunteers, assisting refugee families to receive basic needed services, providing ‘follow along’ assistance to help refugees gain greater independence and recruitment of host churches and organizations to receive new refugees who may arrive.  Red Cross is also working to recruit and organize a cadre of local volunteers who speak many different languages, to help with translation and cultural adaptation for the new families.

Collaboration

This proposal has been overseen and developed by a group of former refugees and several organizational entities, including representatives of the United Religious Communities, Asante Foundation, Inc., and representatives of St. Joseph Parish, South Bend , and the Islamic Society of Michiana, the local Rwandan cultural group, BERWA.