Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City
Posted by Melissa Sogard on January 25, 2010
We’ve been reading articles and posts around the internet regarding problems at this refugee resettlement agency – JVS (Jewish Vocational Services). There are two recent artcles in the Pitch, here and here. (Christopher wrote a comment for the first Jan. 7th article regarding how the U.S. Department of State conducts investigations of refugee resettlement agencies – see Comment #8; also see Comment #1).
There articles tell the story of what our group has seen at refugee resettlement agencies in other parts of the U.S.; refugees being placed in apartments that do not meet the requirements of the State Department’s guidelines, refugees not been given rides to crucial doctor appointments, refugees who have no idea who to call when their refugee resettlement agency is not there to assist them.
JVS is an affiliate of the USCRI (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants). The USCRI’s affiliates have been in dozens of newspaper articles during the past several years that have documented neglect of refugees.
I guess my question is why hasn’t JVS responded to the reports of neglect? The silence almost reads as a confirmation of the reporter’s information and the stories told by JVS’ refugee clients. Does it really all come down to funding issues? If the private contributions added to the public money contributions were too little, why were the refugees accepted by JVS for resettlement? Did a grant or two fall through? How is the public to understand what has happened with so few details provided by JVS?
Jewish Vocational Services defended, but not their refugee clients « Friends of Refugees said
[...] Posted by melissasogard on February 27, 2010 A friend of Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) in Kansas City, the editor of Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, has come to the defense of the organization (article). No surprise there. (We first reported about this USCRI-affiliate agency back on January 25, 2010; see post here). [...]