Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
It’s still not clear to me that the refugee resettlement agencies, as the private sector partners in the US refugee resettlement program, are actually acting as a source of significant private funding for the program., as they so often tout. When I’ve tried to look at the figures I’ve found little information available, and what is available does not show significant private funds. An article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch discusses the changing economic needs of the local refugee resettlement agency — the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees:
UTICA — During the past 30 years, the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees has resettled people from 31 countries.
At its height in 1997, the center welcomed more than 1,000 Bosnians. During the past five years, the center has resettled an average of 500 refugees per year, most of whom have been Karen/Burmese refugees.
As the center continues to welcome new refugees who often become citizens and grow their families here, the Utica area – known as the city that loves refugees – must look at this group and its impact in a new way while it morphs into one culture.
Here’s a look at how the center is contributing to that process:…
…The refugee center devised a plan that would keep it relevant as not only a resource for new arriving refugees but for a community that reflects a change in its cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity.
Foreseeing that need, the board created objectives three years ago focusing on services that would promote cultural identity, increase access to interpreting and cultural awareness training, and provide opportunities for the community to become unified. That led to the creation of Compass Cultural Institute, an interpreting service program and cultural competence training service that’s been active in local hospitals, schools and workplaces.
“If we just depended on financial income coming only from resettling refugees [emphasis added] and continued to do that five or 10 years ago and not try to move in a different direction and provide other services to them, we would be in a different position,” refugee center board President Robert Dicks said… Read more here
Should they “depend” on refugee resettlement for the organization’s financial income or should they be bringing significant private funding to the program? There should be enough transparency in the resettlement program so that we can look at these private funding figures. Secondly, refugees have always needed other services and support beyond the initial resettlement period, so shouldn’t these services have been built into every resettlement agency a long time ago? I know that organizations have to make sure the numbers work but the emphasis should always have been on refugees’ needs.
