Hampton Roads Trimester Report to the
Virginia Office of Newcomer Services
February 1, 2009 - May 31, 2009
Program: Refugee Social Services
Profile of Refugees Served
The Hampton Roads office is currently serving refugees from Burundi, Burma, Somalia, Iraq, Togo, Bhutan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Liberia, and Rwanda. Thus far in 2009, the office has resettled 79 refugees from Iraq, Cuba, Burma, Bhutan and Rwanda, two Special Immigrant Visa holders from Iraq and six political asylees. A busy summer is anticipated.
Program Highlights and Accomplishments
Employment
In this trimester the Hampton office was able to place 29 enrollees in full-time jobs at an average wage of $8.55 per hour, all with benefits. Of the 31 placements last quarter, 85% are still employed. Two people moved to other states, one joined the Job Corp, and the other one quit his job because "his belly got in the way". This man has had many jobs and can't seem to find one he likes. His most recent attempt at work was at a local hotel pushing laundry carts. Although he told us he quit because his big stomach made it difficult to push the carts, we heard from someone else that he quit because he considered it woman's work. Fortunately his wife and brother are working and they can pay the rent and utilities ¿ they will need to pressure him to assume his manly responsibility of contributing.
New employer contacts this trimester include Reliance Staffing, Southern Contracting Systems, Inc., J. Smith Enterprises (owner of 14 McDonald's restaurants on the Peninsula), Norfolk Airport Hilton Hotel, The Fresh Market, Wendy's Restaurant, Dr. Angela Guedon Olivette -- Virginia Beach, Riverside Wellness and Fitness Center, Great Wolf Lodge, Rajput Indian Cuisine Restaurant, and Kingsmill Day Spa. We are grateful to have these partners in resettlement.
As a result of the coordinator's various advocacy activities -- through employer outreach letters, phone calls, and referrals, Hampton Roads RIS refugees have entered employment. We are committed to sustaining resettlement despite the current economic down-turn.
Due to the positive experiences of hiring Hampton Roads RIS clients, local employers are open to and successful in accommodating our clients, which helps focus on our placement services within the community through referrals. Several employers have indicated that diversity and inclusion of people from other countries have become increasingly important in their organization's success. In addition, several employers have indicated that they truly welcome the work ethic and enthusiasm brought to the workplace by our clients.
The Hampton Roads RIS office not only has a great working relationship with area employers, we receive overwhelming support from them. The following examples signify the devotion and commitment of our local employers and their eagerness to support our refugees. The HR director of the Embassy Suites Hotel and Convention Center and the hotel management staff, rolled up their sleeves and spent an afternoon sorting donations, cleaning and stocking shelves in the RIS warehouse. Another example of employer support, one of our Togolese families suffered a total loss after a fire ripped through their apartment. The general manager of the staffing agency where our client is placed sprung into action and organized a donation campaign by collecting food, clothing and money from employees of her client, Canon. She went as far as contacting a local news station and was asked to express the families' dilemma during an evening news broadcast. After the resettlement of the family, the manager stated that she had a newfound admiration for what our organization accomplishes with limited staffing.
English Language Training and Volunteerism
Volunteer tutors/teachers recruitment and training are ongoing. Tutors are working with current refugee arrivals at the two English Language Learning Centers, at a small class site or the one-on-one tutoring program. We have 110 clients who are currently receiving tutoring or have a conversation partner in their homes and 12 are also attending a community class.
Since we are still getting new arrivals at a strong pace, there have been continued efforts to outreach for ESL volunteers. It seems as though word of mouth continues to be the main way of attracting new volunteers. The Education Coordinator has made presentations to three church groups, two business women's groups, to a group of CNU students from the Outreach Africa Club and to a Kiwanis Club to recruit volunteers and donations. We continue to get a few inquiries for ESL volunteers from Volunteer Match.
Our Intensive ESL Program has a new development. Our volunteer teachers revamped the program to make it more cohesive. There are three teachers who each take one whole week to do their instruction. This provides better continuity of instruction. Two of the intensive teachers have taken the ESOL BASICS class and one will attend VAILL. During this trimester the Intensive ESL Program was held three times with 30 refugees attending.
Warwick Memorial UMC has reopened the computer lab and staffed it with members of their church on Sunday afternoon, Monday morning, Monday evening and Wednesday evening. The Wednesday evening session has discontinued because of lack of attendance, but the other sessions are being regularly attended. For the month of May, the church provided 90 bus passes to the refugees to come to the computer lab and go back home and 101.25 hours of attendance by refugees was logged. The church has requested two more computers to add to the eight they are currently using. The second computer lab at Warwick Church of Christ, with six computers, is still going strong. Last trimester they clocked 378.5 hours for 33 refugees.
Education Coordinator approached the Embassy Suites Hotel to explore placing computers with Rosetta Stone software there for limited English employees. This hotel has hired a number of refugees in laundry, banquet, housecleaning, etc., and they have offered us the use of a break room. The refugees could come to work early, stay after work or use their break time to work on improving their English. A volunteer will install the computers and teach the refugees how to use the program.
Volunteers are critical to the success of our ESL program. This quarter four volunteers took the ESOL BASICS class online and one attended training to administer the BEST Plus. We often get notes from the tutors giving updates on their students. Clearly both students and participants get much from the relationship.
Support Services
We continue to provide intensive casework services to our new arrivals and support for older families who are in need of our services.
For teens and young adults not likely to earn a high school diploma in the time they have to attend local schools, the Job Corps is a valuable training alternative. RIS introduced and assisted 12 young men and women to matriculate to the Job Corps this Trimester. They visited the Potomac Job Corps site in a van provided by the Admissions Counselor. They applied and selected their choices of study and trade to learn while they are there. The Job Corps provided transportation for them to go there and will provide transportation for them to return home for a 2 week break this summer. They will study and live at the facility for at least one year and they have the choice of earning a high school diploma from the Washington, D.C. public school system as well as learning a trade. They will also receive career counseling when they complete the program.
Management/Staffing
Manola Dobbs was hired in February to replace our Interpreter Services Coordinator and to do outreach to local churches and groups.
Barriers - Problems
Although transportation continues to be our foremost obstacle, the employment coordinator has taken a novel approach to resolving transportation issues. The coordinator discovered a Norfolk area hotel with an immediate need for a large group of housekeeping staff, with transportation being problematic (4 ½ to five hour roundtrip by public transportation), the coordinator established a working relationship with a non profit organization that had use of a 15-passenger van. In exchange for use of their van and driver (pay for hire), the coordinator introduced the agency to the new employer and the agency was able to place several of their clients, which resulted in cutting the transportation costs for our refugees. The Hampton RIS staff continues to look for other possible collaborative relationships with existing transportation services and other non profits in local area.
Planned Initiatives
The Education Coordinator will continue efforts to strengthen our ESOL program by getting the computer lab at Embassy Suites Hotel up and running, and by expanding outreach for volunteers to support the large number of refugees who need tutoring.
To promote employment development in the Hampton Roads area, the Employment Coordinator is developing a program similar to the "Take Your Daughters to Work Day". The premise -- the program would be open to the refugee client who has been in the workforce at least one year; we would arrange for a company with an "employee volunteer program" to have our client shadow a mentor for the afternoon/day. Not only does this expose our clients to future opportunities, it would provide the employer with an innovative approach to highlight their company/product and satisfy the volunteer program requirements. To assist with this undertaking, the coordinator has solicited the assistance of a recently down-sized manager of a staffing agency, who has used our clients in the past.
The Hampton RIS office is working with the Peninsula Council for Workforce Development and the Greater Peninsula Workforce Investment Board (Gary Butler, Hampton Workforce Development and Joy Jackson, City of Newport News Public Library System) to ensure RIS connects the available services to our refugee families and to conduct individual assessments to ensure the eligibility criteria is met prior to application.
Continuing our efforts in steering our clients toward self-sufficiency, our office is working in consortium with area agencies - the Hampton Roads One-Stop office (VEC registration/job search and local job fair information), the Virginia Council of Churches and Good Seed/Good Ground (employment networking.)
Hampton Roads RIS staff provided refugees with information on taking precautions during the swine flu epidemic. Information from the American Red Cross and the World Health Organization was provided in English, French, Spanish and Arabic to our families. We also informed them of the need to prepare for the hurricane season which begins June 1.
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