Archive for the ‘Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 1, 2011
It seems that the best way to help immigrants with acculturation – the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive
structure – is to meet them part way between our culture and theirs. Nooga.com has an article about Boy Scout leaders in Chattanooga who show adept skill at guiding Burundian refugee youth into American culture by tailoring Boy Scout values and traditions to the young people’s experiences and understandings. That’s at the heart of any good teaching no doubt, whether one is teaching adults or children, or Americans or the foreign-born. You have to know your students — not treat them like numbers.
Before a recent hiking outing in the Pocket Wilderness, a member of East Ridge Scout Troop 127 asked Scoutmaster Ben Powell if he’d be bringing along a rifle.
“Why?” Powell replied.
“In case we see a lion,” the scout answered.
Considering the scout’s background, the question wasn’t unreasonable. Of Troop 127′s nine members, six are refugees from Burundi, a small, landlocked country in Eastern Africa with a long history of conflict…
…Powell described the development of the troop as one of continual adaptation, as leaders and scouts have grown in their understanding of one another. Troop leaders now rarely ever wear the Boy Scout uniform, due to a negative association with uniforms wrought from years of civil war in their native country.
To work towards forming stronger relationships, Powell’s approach has been unconventional, but with purpose. In the basement room where the troop meets, a whiteboard shows the tenants of the Scout Law, with the hand-written corresponding words in Kirundi, the indigenous language of Burundi…
…”To be effective working among the Burundians, you have to unpin a lot of your ideas from normality, and that can be disruptive to a lot of people personally,” Powell said. “For example, we discovered that for our Burundians, the forest is not only a place with dangerous animals, but also where military units took people to murder them. So, they are pretty hesitant about places other Scouts would typically enjoy.”
J.R. Caines, pastor of East Ridge Presbyterian, refers to the Burundians as family. He described the church’s mission with the troop as one of not “reaching out, but reaching in.”
“They’re thinking about the future, about having to one day get a job and find their way in America,” Caines said. “So it’s not as much about learning the typical Boy Scout outdoor skills, but also the cultural skills, the way that American culture works.”… Read more here
The only part of the story I’m wary about is the emphasis on Christian values. Those are a significant part of American culture, but not all Christian values – or all of each sect’s values – necessarily represent our common values. Refugee resettlement is a public program serving our whole society. I hope that the Boy Scouts in Chattanooga stick to that part of Christianity that represents the universal human values from which we created our culture, including trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Burundian, Chattanooga, Christian, churches, converting refugees, cultural adjustment, faith-based, teenagers | Tagged: acculturation, American values, Boy Scouts, Burundian, Chattanooga, East Ridge, East Ridge Presbyterian, kirundi, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 11, 2011
Sometimes I get the feeling that many refugee resettlement agencies have never heard a criticism of them that they agreed with. This does not, of course, refer to the agencies that are doing exemplary work, but to the many agencies that continue to get caught offering less than quality services – or even neglecting and abusing refugee clients. Buffalo refugee resettlement agencies continue this tradition by attacking the documentary filmmakers who first produced a film based on information supplied by the agencies, but then did another – the Nickel City Smiler documentary – centered more from the refugees’ perspective, which included some criticisms.
What would have been a great opportunity to learn from refugees who offer their constructive criticism, and thereby gain refugees’ and the public’s trust, the agencies instead squander it with unseemly and baseless accusations.
Ariel Roberta’s second part of a three-part series in Buffalo Rising reveals more details from the story.
I had a chance to meet with the directors of three of the four resettlement agencies in Buffalo. I asked them about their view of the film, and if it represents the refugee situation fairly, and how they feel about the refugee situation in Buffalo…
As required by the [U.S. Department of State] DOS, the agencies provide assistance to refugees to help them become productive members of society. The agencies are responsible for such things as providing housing, turning on utilities, shopping for groceries, applying for community programs, enrolling children in school, and finding employment.
As required by the DOS, the agencies provide assistance to refugees to help them become productive members of society. The agencies are responsible for such things as providing housing, turning on utilities, shopping for groceries, applying for community programs, enrolling children in school, and finding employment.
According to [Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services, Journey's End, and International Institute], they are audited regularly to make sure they are doing a good job.
“I think there’s an opportunity to cut and paste in things the way that you want,” remarked Marlene Schillinger of Jewish Family Services, when I asked about the accuracy of the film.
“There were a number of ways where [refugees] in the film were mislead,” said Molly Short, when I asked about some statements made by refugees pertaining to their resettlement agencies. Marlene said some refugees, including then 11 year old Moe Joe, were probably coached. After meeting with some Karen refugees, it is fair to say that they are a shy bunch, but to say they had been coached may be inaccurate. I had a few interesting conversations with Moe Joe, now 12, and I think he may be better versed in politics than I am. To say he was coached into talking about “street animals” in his neighborhood, and how the violence and crime in his neighborhood upsets him, is to underestimate his articulacy… Read more here
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, dangerous neighborhoods, International Institute of Buffalo, Jewish Family Service of Buffalo & Erie County, Journey's End Refugee Services, Karen, language interpretation/translation, lack of, population levels, using refugees as pawns to boost | Tagged: Ariel Roberta, Buffalo, catholic charities, CEP Films, constructive criticism, International Institute, Jewish Family Services, Journey's End, Karen, Marlene Schillinger, Molly Short, Nickel City Smiler, refugee, Scott Murchie, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 6, 2011
In an Op-ed in The Buffalo News the local refugee resettlement agencies in Buffalo, NY get the numbers wrong on the US House’ proposed public funding cuts.
…The proposed cuts would impact humanitarian assistance programs in three funding areas. Up to 45 percent of funding to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Migration and Refugee Assistance and International Disaster Assistance would be gone… Read more here
Yet, of the 4-5 refugee-related US government accounts that US House Republicans have voted to reduce:
- Migration and Refugee Assistance Account (MRA) 45% cut (global food relief – 41% cut)
- Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) 10% cut
- International Disaster Assistance (IDA) 67% cut
- Citizen and Integation Assistance Program, within the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCRI) ( _ )% cut
…the 45% proposed cut only applies to the MRA account, while the ORR account would only get a 10% cut (see our analysis), and the IDA account would get a 67% cut. The domestic refugee resettlement program derives only from the MRA and ORR accounts. Even if the MRA was cut by 45% that does not necessarily mean that the domestic resettlement program would also be cut by 45%, as resettlement countries such as the US take less than 1% of the world’s refugees each year (close to half of 1%). Our domestic resettlement program is considered the cherry on the cake of our efforts to help the world’s refugees. If the cake were cut by 45% the cherry could also be cut by 45% or it could be left intact. That would be US government agencies’ decision to make.
Strangely however, all of this is fairly much a moot point as the US Senate has just voted not to make any cuts in these four accounts, according to the USCRI. In other words, the cuts aren’t going anywhere without the Senate’s approval, contrary to Catholic Charities in Chicago’s statements.
If there were a US government shutdown, and when it came to an end (during which, refugees would suffer from lack of assistance) any decision by the House and Senate on how they will compromise or not compromise on these funding matters would still have to be made in a conference committee. Therefore, we’re right back to the horse-trading again. But no, it’s not some simple 45% cut. That is a proposal by US House Republicans, and it only applies to the MRA account. The devil is always in the details.
Posted in Baptist, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Buffalo, Catholic, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, Christian, Citizenship & Integration Program, funding, International Disaster Assistance (IDA), International Institute of Buffalo, Jewish, Migration & Refugee Assistance Account (MRA), ORR account | Tagged: Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Chicago, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, Citizenship and Integration Program within the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, conference committee, Dennis C. Walczyk, Dennis Walczyk, IDA, International Disaster Assistance, International Institute of Buffalo, Jewish Family Service of Buffalo, Journey’s End, Marlene A. Schillinger, Marlene Schillinger, Migration and Refugee Assistance account, MRA, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, US government shutdown | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 17, 2010
A notice in Knoxvillebiz.com announces that Bridge Refugee Services Inc. is getting a new director:
Jennifer Ward Cornwell has been promoted to executive director of Bridge Refugee Services Inc. here
Who is this Jennifer Ward Cornwell? I looked her up and couldn’t find much of anything. Then I found a Facebook page with her name, which indicates that she just graduated from Furman University in 2007, and only just got a graduate degree this year. How is it possible that someone just out of school could be qualified to be the executive director of a refugee resettlement agency? (Although we hope she’s highly qualified and we wish her the best of luck, especially for the refugees’ sake.)
I suppose I should not be surprised by this at all in a field that also regularly employs people as caseworkers who have no experience working with refugees, and who often do not have masters degrees in social work. In fact you’re lucky as a refugee if your case worker even has a Bachelor’s degree in social work. But even in that case most of these people do not have a clue how to network with businesses to help refugees find jobs.
The other thing that resettlement agencies do is hire almost anyone who arrived here as a refugee themselves, and maybe has a college degree or worked for an NGO before they arrived in the US. But having been a refugee in no way automatically qualifies someone as a good case worker. I suspect that resettlement agencies hire refugees mainly for their foreign language abilities. Yet those skills often don’t help for long. Bosnian and other refugees from former-Yugoslavian republics are found all over the refugee resettlement field working as caseworkers and in other positions, and have language skills that are now fairly useless for the new set of refugees arriving these days. Although resettlement agencies are quick to tout the former-refugee experience of their caseworkers I think we should always ask, “but is this person a good case worker?”
Getting back to Bridge Refugee Services Inc., I just realized that we have a US Department of State inspection report for the agency from 2006. Bridge’s services leave a bit to be desired. Of all the refugees in the four families that the inspectors visited only one refugee was working. A Sudanese refugee family had arrived six months earlier yet the father was still unemployed even though he spoke good English. Refugees had to live in transitional housing for weeks – e.g. in a motel, a shelter, and in a host family’s home – before Bridge transferred them to permanent housing (this is a violation of basic requirements). Bridge also did not give ready-to-eat meals to all refugees upon arrival, as required. Files were often disorganized, incomplete or contained inappropriate documents. Caseworkers also did not know that refugees do not need social security cards to get a job, so the refugees were left to wait for months until social security cards arrived. I’m always struck with how we keep going year after year with the same basic mistakes being made over and over.
Bridge Refugee Services Inc. has had a several publicized problems this year — problems that the State Department inspectors obviously did not detect. See our previous coverage here, here and here.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Christian, CWS, EMM, employment/jobs for refugees, Episcopal, faith-based, food, former Yugoslav republics, housing, Knoxsville, Liberian, Meskhetian Turks (Ahiska
Turk), State Department, Sudanese, Tennessee | Tagged: Bridge Refugee Services, Knoxsville, refugee caseworkers, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 5, 2010
A Burundian refugee family in Knoxville that was initially resettled into overcrowded and unbearably filthy conditions by Bridge Refugee Services Inc. of East Tennessee, but was then helped by a friend to find a better housing unit, has once again been traumatized. This time by neighborhood violence.
In 2007, [Ntabagana Honorata], three brothers and [Honorata's 17-year-old daughter Francine Ndayisaba] fled Africa with the help of Bridge Refugee Services Inc. of East Tennessee. The first home Honorata and her family lived in with other Burundi refugees was not fit for human occupation, family friend Janice Davis said.
“As soon as I found this family of nine living in a two-bedroom apartment, I was disgusted at roaches falling off the ceiling, and they would not allow the kids to go into the laundry area because of rats,” Davis said of the residence near Washington Pike.
…Davis said after finding Honorata and her family living in such conditions on Washington Pike, she helped the family find their current home on Goins Road in Lonsdale… here
Bear in mind that resettlement agencies sign federal government contracts promising to find housing for refugees that is “safe, sanitary, and in good repair”. They then willfully and regularly violate those contracts, and with no consequences.
Five bullets pierced [their new] home. No one was inside at the time. Knoxville Police Department officers responded to reports of gunfire in the community about 5:47 p.m. Monday.
…The bullet holes were scattered across the front of the home. The most destructive bullet burst through the front window, traveled about 12 feet through the living room, continued through the kitchen wall and eventually crashed through the back kitchen window, leaving shards of glass scattered on the windowsill.
KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk said the only person injured was 20-year-old Carlton Brown, Honorata’s neighbor. DeBusk said the shooting occurred because of an ongoing dispute between Brown and a suspect, who DeBusk said has been tentatively identified but not yet found. He said a preliminary investigation shows that Honorata and her family have no connection to Brown or the suspected gunman.
Regardless of whether the suspect is caught, the psychological damage to Honorata and her daughter is done. She lived in Burundi, which has a population of almost 10 million people, Tanzania and the Congo before coming to the United States.
“I came from Africa (to get away from the violence),” Honorata said. “I thought I was going to be safe, but now I’m seeing the same thing. I do not feel very good about it.”
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Burundian, dangerous neighborhoods, EMM, housing, housing, substandard, Knoxsville, Operational Guidance, safety, State Department, Tennessee | Tagged: Bridge Refugee Services Inc. of East Tennessee, Burundi, burundi refugees, Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Knoxville, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 12, 2010
According to the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, agencies receiving federal funds need to make sure that limited English clients have access to adequate qualified interpreters. As is seen with the refugee resettlement program, however, that is more of a friendly “partner-like” suggestion than a real requirement.
In Chattanooga, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services (a Church World Service and EMM affiliate) apparently placed refugees in public housing and then let them fend for themselves. Only recently has Chattanooga Housing Authority gotten around to trying to accommodate non-English-speaking residents.
Chattanooga Housing Authority officials are establishing a list of CHA employees who are bilingual and will volunteer to assist non-English-speaking residents.
“We have an emerging Latino population and an emerging Burundian speaking population in Chattanooga, so we wanted to make sure that we could accommodate their needs,” said Betsy McCright, CHA’s executive director.
So far the authority has identified staff who speak Arabic, French, Hindi, Burundi, Russian, Spanish and Swahili.
Establishing a language access plan is part of an overall goal to better accommodate non-English-speaking residents, said Ms. McCright, who also speaks French.
CHA board members approved a policy to establish the so-called language bank at their monthly board meeting last week.
…Bridge Refugee Services, a resettlement organization in Chattanooga, said it has placed about 100 residents in public housing sites or in CHA’s Housing Choice Voucher Program since 2007. The residents are from the Ukraine, Burundi, Cuba, Liberia, Sudan and the Congo. here
But all of this comes a little late to help a non-English-speaking Burundian refugee woman who was raped in May 2009 at Chattanooga Housing Authority’s Boynton Terrace housing development, and couldn’t find anyone to whom she could explain what happened to her.
The policy comes a little more than one year after a Burundian woman was raped twice in her public housing apartment. The man arrested for the crime lived next door to her and wasn’t taken into custody until five days after he allegedly committed the act because there was no translator to interpret for the woman. It was CHA residents who started to demand then that more services be in place to assist the refugees.
The language bank is a good program, but it took the housing agency a long time to do it, said Joe Clark, president of Boynton Terrace Apartments.
“It was the language barrier that was the problem a year ago when the lady got raped,” he said. “The housing authority didn’t have anybody to interpret for her, nor did the police department.”
The language barrier may make non-English-speaking residents easy prey for criminals, said CHA board Chairman Eddie Holmes, but the language bank should help.
In adition, as of January 2010 Burundian refugees continued to be harassed in Chattanooga Housing Authority homes.
…Councilwoman Sally Robinson pointed to recent harassment of Burundi refugees living in Chattanooga Housing Authority homes.
…In May 2009, a Burundi refugee living at the Boynton Terrace housing development was raped, which sparked calls for increased support to the refugees, a particularly vulnerable population. here
So where was Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services when the rapes and the ongoing harassment was occurring? No staff member who could speak the Burundian refugees’ languages (Kirundi and Kiswahili)? Well, it’s not like they have much to worry about. The federal government oversight agencies don’t have any penalties for refugee services contractors who violate federal law, i.e.Title VI. According to the reining partner-like relationship philosophy espoused by the State Department, if, on one of their rare inspections of a resettlement agency, the State Department inspectors find that the agency does not have adequate staff whom are able to speak the refugees’ languages, they simple politely ask that the agency think about trying to hire someone who can interpret. That’s that. A woman was raped twice and unable to communicate what had happened to her? Oh well, that’s unfortunate.
An earlier posting on Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services is here.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Burundian, Chattanooga, Cuban, CWS, EMM, faith-based, former Soviet republics, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Liberian, public/private partnership, safety, sexual abuse, State Department, Sudanese, Tennessee | Tagged: Boynton Terrace, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Burundian, Chattanooga, Church World Service, Civil Rights Act 1964, CWS, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, refugees, resettlement, State Department, Tennessee, Title VI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 29, 2010
Cuban refugees are unhappy with services they are receiving at Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services in Chattanooga, an affiliate of Church World Services and Episcopal Migration Ministries (here).
Refugees are unhappy with the insufficient amount of pocket-money the agency gave them, a lack of food, as well as what sounds like a lack of community and cultural orientation. All of this of course is supposedly required by the State Department’s Operational Guidance contract document (here).
Some Cuban refugees who arrived recently in Chattanooga say the agency hasn’t done enough to help them start their new lives in the United States.
“When we first arrived, they gave us $30 for a family of five,” said Pedro Fumero, who arrived with his wife Mayelin Posada and three children — ages 5, 16 and 18 — on Sept. 10, 2009.
…it…[took] several calls before (Bridge) brought us food,” he said in his Southside apartment.
Mr. Fumero is the former president of a human rights association in Cuba.
…”They say they are going to take you shopping, you are going to have a fully furnished home, that someone is going to teach you the (American) system, but you get here and it’s not true,” he said.
“I understand if they can’t help, but at least I would like for them to come and say, ‘I can’t get you what you want or need but we will work at it,’” he said.
…”What worries me the most is that they are leaving them to fend for themselves,” said Mirtha Jones, a Cuba native and director of La Plaza Comunitaria, a program where many of the Cubans study English.
It sounds like these refugees have heard false rumors about so-called “fully furnished homes”, but $30 is obviously not enough pocket-money for a family of five. The pocket-money requirement is to allow the refugees to purchase incidentals while they wait for cash-assistance approvals – and is often used for toiletries, food, doing laundry, bus passes, etc. I think a more reasonable amount for a family of five would be at least $50-60.
Not only should resettlement agencies give refugees enough food to last a week or two until their food stamps come through, there should also be a ready-to-eat meal at their apartment.
The complaint about not being taught about the American system means that they didn’t get cultural and community orientation yet. Perhaps the agency will offer that in the next week or so, or perhaps they just skipped that requirement entirely.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Chattanooga, community/cultural orientation, Cuban, CWS, EMM, faith-based, food, neglect, Operational Guidance, pocket-money, State Department, Tennessee | Tagged: Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Chattanooga, Church World Services, community orientation, contract, Cuba, Cuban, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, CWS, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, food, human rights, Operational Guidance, pocket-money, refugee, refugees, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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