Roanoke Refugee Services Report
January - June 2009
Profile of Refugees Served
The Roanoke office served the following refugee populations: Somali, Somali Bantu, Cuban, Burundian, Liberian, Burmese, Iranian, Eritrean, Congolese, Iraqi, Bhutanese, and Afghani. Since January the office resettled 39 cases composed of 86 persons; eight of the 38 free cases were Burmese, 1 was Afghani, 1 Somali, 16 Bhutanese, 3 Cuban, and 10 Iraqi. Secondary migrants added four additional cases with 9 persons; 23 of the 36 cases arrived in the last 6 weeks of the trimester.
Program Highlights and Accomplishments
Employment
RIS placed 44 refugees in jobs between February and May 09. The average full time wage $7.75 New Employers included North Roanoke Assisted Living, Lowes, Holiday Inn, Panera Bread, Zee's Salon.
During the fall surge, job placements were very difficult. Over the trimester hiring has increased slowly. Refugees were hired at Labor Solutions, Carilion Laundry, Integrated Textiles, Zee's Beauty Salon, North Roanoke Assisted Living, Holiday Inn Express, Rowe Furniture, Panera Bread, and Lowes. Transportation to work continues to be a challenge as the city busses have limited routes and schedules.
ELT and Volunteerism
Our education coordinator returned from leave in February and has been very active in training tutors and assigning tutors to families. Staff have also provided cultural sensitivity training for medical practices. We continue to conduct ESL classes in the public housing complexes in a partnership with Virginia Tech and will be starting a new class for refugees on the north side of town in a room that Advance Auto Parts is allowing us to use. RIS tutors continue to teach classes at Carilion Laundry
RIS recruits volunteers through notices in church bulletins and on two online volunteer websites, one local and the other national. Additionally our Vista Volunteer Coordinator position was has been successful in recruiting volunteers from a number of new sources. Several consultations were held with tutors in the office, four class sites were visited and end of year testing has been administered to gauge student progress.
Support Services
Our caseworkers have noted that many of the arriving refugees have had health issues. This stems both from the fact that the refugees have had serious illnesses and mental health issues and that these populations have high expectations of medical care when they arrive in the states. Often the initial health assessment results in 4 or 5 referrals to specialists.
The slow economy has been a huge challenge as the refugees have been frustrated at the difficulty in finding employment. Coordinating casework is a challenge as staff deal with medically needy clients and strive to meet the requirements of the Health Department, DSS, school systems and social security.
A new church congregation has stepped up to assist several Bhutanese families.
Management/Staffing
Christy Gillmore, Health Care Coordinator, joined our staff thanks to funding from the Carilion Foundation. This has been extremely helpful in light of recent changes in the protocol for obtaining health screenings.
The Roanoke office hosted a full staff meeting where RIS staff met with peers, received training and shared ideas. In addition staff participated in a teleconference on Catholic Social Teaching.
The three education coordinators and the executive director attended a two day Data Summit regarding the National Reporting System for the EL CIVICS grant. The Department of Education is also providing subsidized certification training which the director attended on program management and the education coordinators will attend in July on instruction. The RIS ELT program is reliant on DOE funds so the program has grown increasingly outcome dependent. Uneducated African refugees are not likely to advance a level, but our commitment is to the most in need, so these students are not entered in the DOE reporting system. ESL staff also attended the Virginia Literacy Leadership Conference in February and CIS' citizenship teacher training workshop in May.
Barriers - Problems
Medical needs consume a great deal of time for our limited case worker staff. One complication has been that the refugees are not receiving a Medicaid number until 4-6 weeks after they arrive. Many doctors in the area in the past would see our clients knowing that they could hold the charge and file it after the Medicaid number came. Now we rarely find a doctor that will see a client before they have the card and we have had problems getting prescriptions before the Medicaid card comes. This forces us to take someone with a critical need to the Emergency Room or Urgent Care as a charity case when they should be covered by Medicaid. It also results in the refugee not actually having 8 months of coverage as they may not use it in the first six weeks.
Planned Initiatives
Five college interns have committed to working at RIS this summer helping with casework and resettlement. Over the coming months the work of the Carilion foundation funded position of Health Care Coordinator will expand beyond strategizing to get basic screening and immunization needs met.
Contact has been made with Goodwill Industries of Roanoke. The Refugee Office has submitted 15 applications for the Summer Youth Program at the Salem Goodwill location.
RIS receives a weekly job listing from the Virginia Workforce Center with a list of available positions in our area. There have been contacts made from this list with possible future hiring as most employers spoken to have been getting from 40 to 50 applications on a daily basis.
Contact has also been made with Total Action Against Poverty, the area CAP agency. TAP has been hosting job fairs which have been very beneficial to our agency especially with the job market being at its lowest. In today's economy, finding jobs for our refugees has been a challenge especially with the refugees' limited communication skills and the influx of more qualified applicants on the job market. We have been having some successes, especially with employers who have worked with refugees before and know their potential and willingness to get the job done. Other potential new employers have said they are willing to give the refugees a chance to prove themselves, when they have the available jobs.
Story worth sharing:
A local couple came to the Roanoke office director during the Christmas season and told us that this year instead of presents for each other they wanted to help an Iraqi family. A family of 6 that arrived in the fall, for whom we were struggling to find jobs, came to mind. We paired this couple with the J family. At first the local couple was primarily interested in purchasing things for the family and maybe help with paying bills, but then they met the J's. Soon after, they became true mentors of the family, helping them find jobs, learn their way around town and assisting financially. It is has been heartening to see these kind people become so involved and friendly with the family. And good to see the refugees become independent of the need for help.
After a difficult start due to frustration and worries about the economy, the young family is doing well in their new home. We all look forward to celebrating the birth of a child in September.
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