 Appendix D
FY 2002 Consultation Proceedings
Through its National Refugee Program Consultation on July 15-17, 2002, ORR strengthened coordination among program participants, and subsequently responded to a number of concerns expressed by various sectors of the Program during the consultation.
ORR was asked to consider targeting some funds in its employment subsidies program to alleviate problems related to refugee gangs. ORR was able to do this.
In response to suggestions in the field of research and evaluation, ORR—
- provided technical assistance to grantees, including Mutual Assistance Associations, in program evaluation within their own agencies;
- made the results of its evaluation of its employment program widely available;
- developed a paper examining the effect of TANF on refugees.
Special Needs Refugees
ORR planned to include newly arrived “Lost Girls” refugees from Sudan in an upcoming summer camp.
In response to a request that ORR direct efforts to the prevention of HIV infection, ORR’s new refugee health information initiative will address this issue.
Discretionary Grants
In response to a request for additional time to prepare discretionary grants applications, ORR in 2004 doubled the allowed time from 30 days to 60 days.
In response to a request to speed funding for unanticipated arrival situations, ORR made provision to issue such grants by mid-summer—two months earlier than in the past.
In response to requests for assisting Mutual Assistance Associations, ORR entered into cooperative agreements with two technical assistance providers for organizational and resource development.
New Populations
In response to a request for more information on arriving refugee populations, ORR conducted a special informational initiative on the expected migration of Somali Bantu in upcoming years and also provided health background papers on the Bantu population.
Asylees
In response to requests from providers for information on persons newly approved as asylees, ORR started a telephone “hotline” to provide information and referral.
Mutual Assistance Associations
In response to a request that older MAAs provide support and mentoring for newer groups, ORR supported grants to ethnic organizations to provide technical assistance to newer groups.
Funding Decisions
In response to a request, ORR kept States informed on the use and accessibility of carryover funding in terms of allocating additional carryover funding to States, especially those with very small arrivals in 2002, ORR examined existing funding from new and prior years and determined that available carryover be used to insure eight months of Cash and Medical Assistance funding for 2004.
In response to State requests to adjust social service allocations, especially those with very low arrivals in 2002, ORR determined that a maintenance of a social service floor was in the best interest of small States that otherwise might not be able to maintain a refugee program.
ORR noted in response to questions that the best way that secondary migration could be supported by States was timely submission of the ORR-11 forms for refugees and the following of instructions on the funding notice for entrants and asylees.
Matching Grant Program
In response to a voluntary agency request and in view of the slow rate of refugee arrivals, ORR extended the so-called “50 percent solution” for the Matching Grant Program. This allowed voluntary agency participants to retain $1,000 of each $2,000 for purposes of maintaining staffs.