Posts Tagged ‘Spokane’

By Cade Hajovsky, Fall Intern

What Is Intensive Case Management?

Not all newly arrived refugees can become self-sufficient and independent in 90 days. Many immigrants need more support. Through our Integration and Wellness department, World Relief provides case management to those struggling to get established. Case managers help clients navigate the health care system, legal resources, housing and financial management services, educational services and more. They connect clients with other agencies who provide direct services, while coaching them in accessing services and resources. The goal is to empower clients and connect them with support systems (physical, emotional, social) as they adjust to life in America.

Volunteers can be a significant help in this process by walking alongside families as they figure out their tight budgets, work on their language skills, learn the culture, and build a network of support. They often bring a wealth of experience and knowledge and still report back that they also learned and grew through the experience.

The purpose of Intensive Case Management is to offer services and help from World Relief beyond the initial 90-day resettlement program — up to 5 years after arrival. Intensive Case Management is one of three teams in the Integration & Wellness Department, which serves hundreds of clients each month.

Integration & Wellness

Andrea Simpson, Director of Integration & Wellness, has been at World Relief since 2008. She began her work as a case manager within the resettlement department, worked her way up to supervisor, and now serves on the leadership team. Within her role, Andrea oversees three teams: Intensive Case Management; Education Services and the Friendship Center/Community Ambassador Team. Intensive Case Management encompasses two programs: Preferred Communities (PC) and Promoting Refugee Integration, Mobility and Empowerment (PRIME).

PC is a program that receives federal funding and supplemental state funding. PRIME is funded by the state. Each of these programs consists of employees who work one-on-one with refugees and their families to overcome challenges. Generally, each case manager works with 10-15 clients at a time.

The time that clients stay within Intensive Case Management programs varies, but the goal is to provide support to our new community members for as long as needed. The case managers in the PC program have a 1-2 year track with a minimum of six months. In PRIME, there is no definitive timeline, a refugee could re-enroll every year until they are no longer eligible (five years). This is a rarity, however, as the purpose of Intensive Case Management is to move clients toward self-sufficiency. Long-term engagement generally only happens if there are extenuating circumstances that would cause someone to stay in PRIME for a longer amount of time, typically medical needs.

In addition to the PC and PRIME programs, Andrea also oversees the Education Center. The Education Services team launched last year and is currently hosting small group education classes on finances, computer skills, housing, and more. Morella Perez-Suels, Manager of World Relief Education Services, believes strongly in working to understand the needs of clients first and then craft educational programs to help fill the gaps.

The Friendship Center is home base of the Community Ambassador team, a program birthed during COVID which has become an invaluable means of connecting with the various immigrant groups within Spokane. Community Ambassadors are already leaders within their individual communities, so they can serve as a bridge between World Relief and the various immigrant groups — letting World Relief know about the needs their community is experiencing and relaying word about available resources back to the communities. Ambassadors help in a wide variety of roles — interpreting and translation, helping to fill out paperwork, delivering food boxes, taking children on field trips to the roller rink or Mobius, connecting families with the Farmers Markets, etc. Melissa Stipek, who oversees the Friendship Center and the Community Ambassador program, describes the Friendship Center as “the happy side of World Relief.”

“I believe for people to be able to flourish, they need to be happy. When people are happy, their mind clears, and they are open to new ideas.” — Melissa

Client Challenges

New immigrant families face a host of challenges, such as language, housing, financial management, schooling, transportation, childcare, healthcare. The first focus area of Intensive Case Management is helping families address these obstacles so that they can stabilize and not be in constant crisis. Secondly, they help refugees build a firm foundation and move forward into integration and empowerment.

The top two challenges case managers address are housing and finances.

“When families first arrive, they do not have very many options for housing as they do not have rental or credit history, which often leads to them not getting their ideal housing,” Andrea said. “Also, with housing prices going up, there have been issues with families not being able to find affordable rent.”

Families who arrive through World Relief’s resettlement programs are initially paired with the resettlement teams who diligently work to find them housing. Intensive Case managers get involved with housing later down the line and generally work with families looking for their second home, not their first home.

In addition to assisting with housing, case managers help clients budget, apply for jobs and programs, and teach them how to connect with different resources.

“Intensive Case Management is necessary because if you picked up tomorrow and moved to another country, you would have lots of lessons to learn,” Andrea said. “How do I get a phone? How do I get from here to there? How do I pay for this? What if I want to buy a house? How do I support my children? Everything you want to do, you have to learn anew.”

As soon as they arrive in the United States, refugees are learning how to navigate life in the United States, which includes the need to understand technology. The digital climate of the U.S. requires people to know how to navigate the internet and complete tasks online, such as applying for a job. For someone who has never used a computer before, this can be a very difficult transition. Through the Education Center, immigrants are learning how to navigate the online world.

Through help with housing, transportation, education and finances, the main goal of the Integration & Wellness department is to help refugees gain confidence and get to a point where they feel comfortable navigating life without as much support from World Relief.

Self-Sufficiency

The mission of World Relief is not simply to make sure a refugee is in a home and has a job; it is to walk with them until they are in a position to flourish in their new home.

“Integration and Wellness is all about empowerment,” Andrea said. This process is executed through setting goals that help refugees build stability.

While a refugee can enter into Intensive Case Management as soon as their time with the resettlement department is over, this is not normally the case.

“Everyone hits that wall, usually after they have been here for six months, where they say, ‘This is not what I expected,’” Simpson said. “’The people, the food, the housing, the job, it’s not what I expected.”
When this time comes, the Intensive Case Management team welcomes refugees with open arms and works diligently to assist them in their struggles. Stability is not built overnight; it is a process of gaining confidence, skills, and experience that lead to this sense of empowerment for refugees.

At World Relief, we never want refugees to feel alone on this journey. We work to provide them with the resources and connections they need to succeed and feel empowered, and the work of Intensive Case Management greatly contributes to this mission.

Ronald Reagan once famously said: “The best social program is a job.”

It might be overly simplistic, but he’s not wrong. In our experience, the refugees and new arrivals coming to the United States through World Relief very much want to work. They have come for a better life which includes finding meaningful work. Those coming from refugee camps have not been allowed to work – some for decades – and are eager to use their skills to build a life in their new home.

Jared Booker, Director of Economic Empowerment at World Relief Spokane, described his department’s role like this: “We don’t simply find someone a job. We encourage our clients to dream again. A job can bring dignity, confidence, and the ability to be a positive part of something much larger than themselves. These are all things that have, for the most part, gone dormant within our clients.”

World Relief’s goal is to help each new immigrant family find employment for at least one adult in the first 90 days. The first job may be an entry-level position while the clients work on their language skills, navigate transportation and develop skills. Clients are welcome to come back at a future date when they are ready to pursue a more career-oriented position. Job Readiness Workshops provide clients with information and mentoring on how to find and maintain meaningful employment.

Currently, the workshops run three times a week with different days devoted to different groups of people so that interpreters can be available as necessary. Clients learn both soft and hard skills – matching your skills to a job, goal setting, resolving conflict, teamwork, interviewing, etc.

Economic Empowerment specialists each carry a workload of approximately 60 people with whom they are working to find employment. Specialists interview clients, manage expectations, help with resumes and applications, set up interviews and coach/encourage clients along the way. They work with a variety of employers from manufacturing to hospitality: HDT Global, Starbucks, Panda Express, Davenport Hotels, and K-L Manufacturing, to name a few.

Two-Way Benefit

Sometimes people use employment issues as an argument against immigration: “They’re taking our jobs.” Or… “They’re just going to end up on welfare and drain all our resources.”

The facts, however, do not support either claim:

According to Labor Secretary Martin Walsh, “We don’t have enough workers in the United States of America to fill all the job openings that are out there… The threat to the American economy long-term is not inflation, it’s [about] immigration. It’s not having enough workers… America has always been a country that has depended on immigration.”– Wall Street Journal

“While the perception persists that people migrate to milk America’s social safety net, the reality is that almost all immigrants come to the United States to work. Immigrants overall are significantly more likely than native-born US citizens to be employed.” – Welcoming the Stranger

World Relief’s Jared Booker put these facts into context: “We don’t buy into a sense of employment scarcity. A job for a refugee or immigrant is not one less slice of the pie for you or me. The reality is that, as we welcome newcomers, newcomers also know how to make pie, and there’s more pie for everyone.”

Enriching Our Lives

“They are enriching our lives and expanding our understanding of others.” – Jayne McLaughlin

One local employer discovered that new immigrants not only make great employees, they add unexpected value.

Executive Director Christi Armstrong, who started her career with World Relief in 2013 with the employment department, remembers her first encounter with Waterglider:

“When I got my first clients on my caseload, they were all single Sudanese men. My job was to help them find jobs. I was looking at the WorkSource website, and I saw this opportunity for Waterglider.” Little did she know what a great partnership was about to begin. “The interview was very short. Sean really liked the guys and hired the two of them together to start working production at Waterglider.”

From then on, “They called me whenever they had positions,” Christi said. “We would do whatever we could to bring other Sudanese people to them because of the language barrier. Gamar and Ibrahim had learned a little more English by then, so they would be able to train other people.

“I think what I love most about Sean and Jayne is that they saw these guys – not as a deficit because of the language barrier but as assets because of their work ethic. They’re just go-getters. They came here to work. They came here to get a better life. Sean and Jayne picked up on that really quickly and so they were more than willing to give them a chance.”

Sean and Jayne are still hiring refugees. Currently, they have two employees from Ukraine, one from Thailand, one from Burma and Rose, from Burundi, who makes all of the bath bombs.

“All our refugee employees have been really hard-working, very nice people, very grateful, sincere, friendly, nice to have around,” Jayne said. “They are enriching our lives and expanding our understanding of others.”

Early in the morning on February 6, massive earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. For many of us who live thousands of miles away from the devastation, it can be hard to imagine the profound scale of loss — and even harder to know how best to respond.  

And yet, if you’re like us, your faith compels you to respond. 

At World Relief, our mission is to empower the local church to serve the most vulnerable. When natural disasters like this one occur, those who are already in vulnerable situations are put at even greater risk. By responding together, we can extend the love of Christ to those who are suffering in their greatest time of need. 

That’s why we’ve shared five things you should know about what’s happening in Turkey and Syria, why we at World Relief are responding and how you can join us in praying for and serving those who are suffering.

1. How widespread is the impact of the earthquakes?

The earthquakes struck in the early morning hours in a region that has not experienced a major earthquake in over 200 years, leaving residents little prepared. As a result, the devastation has been widespread and severe.

At the time of writing, an estimated 36,187 have died in Turkey and more than 5,800 in Syria — and these numbers continue to rise. More than 5 million people across Syria are now in need of shelter while nearly a million more men, women and children are now homeless in Turkey as a result of the earthquakes. Basic infrastructure, including power and water, has been completely demolished in some areas.

The earthquake’s devastation is further compounded by freezing winter temperatures and, in Syria, decades of civil war have left residents especially vulnerable.

2. What are the greatest needs and how is World Relief responding?

As those impacted grapple with freezing temperatures, decimated infrastructure and profound loss and trauma, the greatest immediate needs include shelter, water, power, blankets, non-food and sanitary items and psychosocial counseling. 

World Relief is responding on the ground through long-standing, trusted partners, including Tearfund Germany and the Integral Alliance. Our partners are connected with local churches and organizations in Turkey and Syria who can more quickly deliver aid — especially in hard-to-reach regions or where international aid may be restricted by governing authorities due to protracted conflicts.

Our local partners are working especially hard to provide assistance to the most vulnerable, including the elderly, children and persons with disabilities.

Thus far, our response efforts have included: 

• Establishing mobile kitchens and distribution centers for food, water, hygiene supplies, emergency shelter, heaters, batteries, tools and more
• Operating mobile hygiene trailers that offer toilets, showers and washing machines
• Facilitating a kids club and trauma counseling center for children impacted by the disaster
• Providing mobility devices such as wheelchairs, protheses and walkers to those who need them

To stay up-to-date on how we’re responding to this and other crises around the world, sign up for our mailing list, here.

3. What will happen after the initial response?

Natural disasters on the scale of what we’re seeing in Turkey and Syria affect every facet of life. Responding immediately is essential to ensure the survival and safety of as many people as possible. At the same time, we at World Relief understand that rebuilding and restoring what has been broken — whether infrastructure or lives — takes time and commitment. 

That’s why we’re beginning conversations with our trusted partners in the region to determine how we can best come alongside local communities so that they not only survive the current crisis, but can flourish and thrive in the future. In places like Syria, which have already been wracked by unimaginable conflict and loss, this commitment is all the more important.

4. Has World Relief worked in the affected region before?

Yes! World Relief formerly had programming in both Syria and Turkey which we transferred to our partners at Tearfund Germany in 2019. We continue to have a strong relationship with Tearfund Germany, allowing us to respond quickly and effectively through our partners who are still at work in the region. 

Additionally, World Relief has been helping Syrian refugees resettle in the U.S. for over a decade. Members of the Syrian community in the U.S. have become our coworkers, neighbors and friends. We are grieving and praying alongside them at this difficult time. 

5. How can I help?

• Pray: As in all things, we first turn to prayer. Pray for those who are still missing to be found, for the injured to be healed, for the hungry to be fed, for the cold and weary to find shelter and for the grieving to be comforted. Pray also for those responding to do so with wisdom and endurance.  

• Give: You can rush help to Turkey and Syria by giving today. Your donation will support our partners at work in the region, ensuring more help can reach more people in this time of great need.

• Share: As the news cycle moves on to the latest headlines, you can help keep Turkey and Syria in the prayers of your friends, family and neighbors by sharing what you’ve learned in this blog.

Join World Relief Spokane in lifting up a prayer for Syria and Turkey. On February 6, 2023, two earthquakes caused enormous destruction. Currently, thousands of people have died and many thousands more are injured or missing. The process of rebuilding homes, businesses, and lives will take many years. 

Within our community at World Relief Spokane, this tragedy feels very close to home. One of our staff lived in Turkey for nine years and went to school there. She has friends and family members still living in the region and just visited over Christmas break. We also serve refugees and immigrants who came to the U.S. from Syria and Turkey, leaving loved ones behind. 

We know that many of those impacted are among the most vulnerable – some are refugees who fled Syria for Turkey while others are persecuted minority groups or those in poverty.

Recovering from this devastation will be very difficult. 

As our community grieves, we invite you to join us in prayer for Syria and Turkey. Thank you for joining World Relief Spokane in asking God to bring an end to suffering and a reign of justice on the earth.  

PRAYER FOR SYRIA AND TURKEY 

God, 

In the face of unspeakable tragedy, the suffering of those in our community, and the destruction and loss of life in Syria and Turkey, we pray what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 10: 

Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely, you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed. 

Comfort the people whose family members and friends have died as a result of these earthquakes. Draw close to them. 

Equip believers in Syria and Turkey to show the love of Jesus to their neighbors by helping in tangible ways and sharing the hope of the Gospel.  

Inspire generosity in the hearts of people in the United States and across the world, prompting individuals to give the resources and money needed to help communities rebuild.  

Empower the Church in America to show radical love for our immediate neighbors who are grieving the loss of life, beauty, and peace in Syria and Turkey.  

Let us not turn away, but help us be your hands and feet to love those who are suffering and bear witness to your presence with them.  

God, hear our prayer. 

Amen. 

You Can Help

World Relief is responding to provide immediate assistance through our network of long-standing partners and churches in the region. You can help reach more people in need by responding with us today. Give now to rush help to Turkey and Syria.

Read a press release from World Relief regarding the earthquakes on February 6, 2023.