Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
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3-22-09, Federal funding boost will help Utah refugees
Federal funding boost will help Utah refugees
Rescue » New money allows for expanding staff and shrinking caseloads.
By Julia Lyon — The Salt Lake Tribune
Updated:03/22/2009 07:51:47 AM MDT
After 15 years at a refugee camp in Kenya, Ali Amin arrived in 2007 in Utah, where he felt lost and afraid of the snow. His 11-member family — the grandmother is now 102 – included a child who was so sick that Amin didn’t think he would ever walk.
But his son is exploring the world on his own two feet these days, and his father, emboldened by a driver license, is doing the same thing behind the wheel.
The Somali refugee family credits much of their success to the devotion of its case manager at the International Rescue Committee. “I think if Stacey weren’t helping us, we would not survive,” Amin said Friday through an interpreter.
The family benefitted from special long-term case management, which, starting this month, all new refugees will receive. Thanks to federal dollars, Utah’s resettlement organizations were able to hire a large number of new staff, who will guide and supervise refugees during their first two years in America. The goal is to foster independence and ensure families aren’t overlooked.
Somali refugee Fatuma Aden, washes the face of her daughter, Nasteho Issak, 4, in the family’s kitchen sink. The family says it has benefited from long-term case management through a program at the International Rescue Committee. Federal money will allow refugee resettlement agencies in Utah to provide intensive case management for two years instead of six months. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
This is a massive shift in a system that critics say has previously left many refugees feeling abandoned and neglected. Minimal funding meant staffers were overwhelmed and unable to provide more than basic help.
Under the previous system, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Catholic Community Services (CCS) welcomed refugees, found them a place to live and helped connect them to services, such as food stamps and health insurance.
After about 6 months, refugee cases were transferred to the Asian Association, where a staff member was responsible for as many as 130 individuals and families. Critics say some refugees received too little, if any, help.
“We were putting ‘band-aids’ on problems,” said Lina Smith, director at the Utah Refugee Center based at the association. “We absolutely didn’t have the staff to do proper case management.”
All three groups have expanded staff thanks to about $2 million per year in federal welfare and social service dollars for the two-year experimental program.
Thanks to nine new employees, Smith’s staff members each now have between 35 and 40 cases. Families will be matched with case managers who speak the same language. At all the agencies, Iraqi, Burmese and Bhutanese staff have been hired, because those are the largest refugee groups expected this year. Visiting refugees’ homes will happen more frequently, something that was often unrealistic for frantic workers before.
“They couldn’t even have lunch,” Smith said.
Stacey Shaw, who worked with Amin’s family as an IRC long-term case manager, helped them with a variety of challenges, from re-enrolling the kids in school to making doctor’s appointments. Her goal was to empower the family to be self-sufficient, and that’s begun to happen. Now Amin can go to the pharmacy alone. He made a doctor’s appointment this week without any help.
“A big part of it is being able to develop a relationship with the family,” she said.
Starting March 1, IRC began to keep all its new cases for two years. CCS will continue to transfer its cases to the Asian Association after six months, but the additional staff will allow the association to give the new refugees increased attention during the following year and a half. The goal is for agencies’ caseload to drop to about 20 per case manager.
Before the move, stories abounded of refugees who hadn’t seen their caseworkers for a long time and didn’t know how to get help, explained Gerald Brown, the director of Utah’s new refugee services office. With long-term case management, that is expected to stop.
“We’ve got contracts with all three [agencies], and we’re going to monitor them,” he said.
Staff morale is high at CCS, said Aden Batar, resettlement director. An additional boon will come when some refugee families begin to receive new housing subsidies this year, decreasing monthly rent pressure.
“With these two things working together, then I think we can work with the families on long-term issues,” he said, citing English skills as an example.
His counterpart at IRC, Patrick Poulin, believes this is the direction refugee programs “need to go.”
“Hopefully it’s something the new administration will look at,” he said.
Somali refugee Fatuma Aden, washes the face of her daughter Nasteho Issak, 4, in the family’s kitchen sink. The family has benefited from long-term case management through a program at the International Rescue Committee. Federal money will allow refugee resettlement agencies in Utah to provide intensive case management for two years instead of six months. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
Somali refugees Ali Amin, holding son Abdullahi Issak, 2, and his wife, Fatuma Aden, have benefited from long-term case management provided by the International Rescue Committee. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
Somali refugees Ali Amin, and his wife, Fatuma Aden, holding son Abdullahi Issak, 2, say they are grateful for the long-term case management they received through the International Rescue Committee. Now all new refugees will have similar aid. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
As an International Rescue Committee case worker, Stacey Shaw, right, was a constant support for Ali Amin’s family, which arrived as Somali refugees in 2007. On Friday, she played with Abdullahi Issak, 2, as he sat in his father’s lap. At left is Amin’s daughter, Nasteho Issak, 4. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
Somali refugee Ali Amin, holding son Abdullahi Issak, 2, and his daughter Nasteho Issak, 4, have benefitted from extended case management since they arrived in Utah in 2007. (Leah Hogsten / The Salt Lake Tribune)
COMMENTS
| FORefugees: 3/22/2009 8:47:00 PM | +3 |
As a nonprofit organization why is IRC not able to raise it’s own funds to add to the federal government’s typical contribution for refugee resettlement? Refugee resettlement is already the most expensive option for assisting refugees even without these additional millions of dollars.
| Lament: 3/23/2009 8:29:00 AM | +1 |
America is full and broke. Stay home!
| ds7: 3/23/2009 8:34:00 AM | +1 |
why does america need more uneducated third world refugees…and we get to pay for the privilege…let’s shut these programs down and send these people back to their home countries where they can become part of the solution of making africa a place worth living…
| Veda: 3/23/2009 9:50:00 AM | +2 |
This is an awesome display of our country helping other nations that may be unable to assist their own country. Finally our nation is making choices that make me proud to be an American again.
| Meat Puppet: 3/23/2009 9:54:00 AM | -1 |
Why doesn’t some all-powerful god help these people? Or everyone on Planet Hell? WTF?
| td113648: 3/23/2009 10:01:00 AM | +1 |
Why don’t you go help these people. That is what a all powerful God is wanting. It is called agency. You are an agent unto yourself. Do what you like. Just don’t steal my money to do it. i.e. government funds.
| Meat Puppet: 3/23/2009 10:16:00 AM | -2 |
td113648: Guess what! An all-powerful god must have free agency, too. And the overwhelming power to fix ills … but chooses not to. And meat puppets are supposed to worship these slackers? STOP BLAMING THE VICTIMS! Geeessshhh!
| Beetruck: 3/23/2009 10:28:00 AM | +2 |
‘Stimulating the Economy,” one non-revenue enhancing hand out at a time. Utah, want to see your future? Check out Minneapolis and the fine contribution Somalians et.al have made to the cultural vibrance of that city…then check out the mugshots, not even the most committed of the ostrich liberal crowd can ignore the crime theyve introduced there.
| Cantus: 3/23/2009 11:09:00 AM | +3 |
1) “Refugees” should be resettled in a country as close geographically, culturally and linguistically to their original homes as possible, so that when conditions stabilize they can (and will) go back.
2) Caring for refugees is actually far cheaper that way, anyway, since dollars go much further in Africa, Southeast Asia, etc. You could probably help ten times as many with the same amount of cash. And the refugee aid workers would get to live abroad!!!
3) The groups that handle refugees in this country, often connected to churches, are frequently depicted as “charitable,” when in fact they receive huge amounts of funding from the taxpayer and much of the rest of their outlay is in the form of LOANS to the refugees.
4) It’s nice to know that in a nation that now has a $1.8 TRILLION deficit (this year alone) we have yet more money to waste on refugees. Hey, it’s not as if we have to live by a budget, right?
5) Yes, I am a cruel, heartless, hard-nosed b*****d. Sometimes that’s exactly what we need. This is one of those times. We already take in over 1.5 MILLION immigrants each and every year. Enough!
| troythayne: 3/23/2009 1:18:00 PM | 0 |
We dont need anymore refugees, especially muslim refugees!
| Reality Bites: 3/23/2009 1:28:00 PM | +2 |
What in hell are Somali refugees doing in Utah?
| fedoradude: 3/23/2009 2:56:00 PM | 0 |
Somalis, Sudanese, Burmese, Iraqis, and others are all part of the federal government’s refugee resettlement program. SLC is one of the resettlement cities. Have you really not seen these people around all these years? They kind of stand out. They also didn’t just arrive. This program is not new. You haven’t been paying attention.
The government agrees to help these people, but quickly leaves them on their own before they have assimilated. How is helping these people get settled, learn English and job skills a bad thing?
Your tax money pays for millions of dollars in foreign aid that does nothing to help people be self-sufficient and you are b*tching about $2M? Refugees don’t want to come here and live off of you. They want to be independent, but that’s hard to do when you don’t speak the language, drive, have relevant job skills. Refugees are some of the hardest working people you will ever meet. They know how to take advantage of the American Dream far better than most of us. We want them to become productive, taxpaying citizens.
