Office Of Refugee Resettlement: Policy Guidance & Reporting Forms

Annual ORR Reports to Congress - 2002

Category 1: Preferred Communities

In Category 1, ORR seeks to promote opportunities for refugee self-sufficiency and effective resettlement. To that end, funds are made available for grants to voluntary agencies to increase placements of newly arriving refugees in preferred communities where there is a history of low welfare utilization and a favorable earned income potential relative to the cost of living.

In FY 2002, ORR awarded six continuation grants, totaling $4,036,930 to national voluntary agencies to enhance entry level services in preferred communities with good employment opportunities needed by newly arriving refugees:

Church World Service, $319,793. Preferred Community sites: South Bend, Indiana; Columbus, Ohio; Rochester, New York; Columbia, South Carolina; Fort Worth, Texas; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, $210,416. Preferred Community sites: Boise, Idaho; New Bern, North Carolina; New Haven, Connecticut; and Lexington, Kentucky.
Ethiopian Community Development Council, $350,097. Preferred Community sites: San Diego, California; Omaha, Nebraska; Houston, Texas; and Denver, Colorado. *
Immigration and Refugee Services of America, $1,640,390. Preferred Community sites: Bowling Green, Kentucky; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Buffalo, New York; Colchester, Vermont; Erie, Pennsylvania; Manchester, New Hampshire; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Twin Falls, Idaho. HIV sites: Brooklyn, New York; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island; and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, $373,181. Preferred Community sites: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Trenton, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; Grand Rapids, New Jersey; Omaha, Nebraska; Grand Forks, North Dakota; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Preferred Community sites $1,143,053. Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Salt lake City, Utah; and San Diego, California. HIV sites: Grand Rapids, Michigan; San Diego, California; Seattle, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; and Portland, Oregon.

In the February 2002 closing of the Standing Announcement for Services of Recently Arrived Refugees, the following grants were awarded in the amount of $959,359:

Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, $182,045. Preferred Community sites: Syracuse, New York; Tucson, Arizona; and Laconia, New Hampshire.
Ethiopian Community Development Council, $260,000. Preferred Community sites: Phoenix, Arizona; Kansas City/Wichita, Kansas; and Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, $517,314. Preferred Community sites: Springfield, Massachusetts; and a supplement for Tucson, Arizona and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Category 2: Unanticipated Arrivals

The Unanticipated Arrivals Program is intended to provide resources that bridge the gap between the arrival of refugees and the time when their numbers are included in the population-based formula social service funds. Situations that Unanticipated Arrivals funding are intended to mediate include those where bilingual staff is needed for new arrivals, where refugee services do not exist, and where available services are not sufficient to meet the needs of the additional refugees.

In the February 2002 closing of the Standing Announcement for Services to Recently Arrived Refugees, ORR awarded three grants in the amount of $399,061 to the following applicants:

Lincoln Interfaith Council, Lincoln, Nebraska, $159,773
Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, Raleigh, North Carolina, $94,112
Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Inc., Omaha, Nebraska, $145,176

In the July 2002 closing of the Standing Announcement for Services to Recently Arrived Refugees, ORR awarded two grants in the amount of $906,571 to the following applicants:

Catholic Charities, Maine, $200,000
North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Raleigh, North Carolina, $706,571

Two supplemental requests were awarded to the following grantees totaling $264,827

City of Portland, Portland, Maine, $216,666
Somali Community Resettlement Services, Rochester, Minnesota, $48,161

Category 3: Services for Arriving Refugees with Special Conditions

The purpose ORR seeks to fulfill through Category 3, Services for Arriving Refugees with Special Conditions, is to provide resources that will address the needs of targeted groups of refugees. We believe that enhanced case management, education, culturally and linguistically appropriate linkages and coordination with other service providers contributes to the overall improved well-being of refugees with special needs.

Situations for which applicants may compete for grants under Category 3 might include refugees arriving with: (1) Medical conditions requiring specialized health care; (2) youth and young adults who have undergone significant trauma or spent an unusually long period under refugee camp conditions; e.g., the Kakuma youth; (3) refugees disabled by the atrocities of warfare, such as those from Sierra Leone; and (4) grave social and emotional conditions including emotional trauma resulting from war.

In FY 2002, ORR awarded nine grants in the amount of $1,568,869 to the following applicants:

Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Houston, Texas, $190,122
Ethiopian Community Development Council, Arlington, Virginia, $350,000
International Institute of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, $200,000
International Rescue Committee, New York, $67,074
International Rescue Committee, New York, $138,727
Lutheran Children and Family Services of Eastern Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, $94,670
Lutheran Social Services of Metropolitan New York, New York, $97,496
Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, $205,780
Minnesota Department of Human Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota, $225,000

An additional funding request was approved for indirect cost reimbursement for Rocky Mountain Survivors Center that totaled $35,131.

Category 4: Ethnic Community Organizations

ORR supported 5 national and 37 local ethnic organizational projects with awards totaling $7,781,202. The organizations provided various direct and referral services, self-help networks, developed newsletters and web sites to enhance ethnic community organizing and interaction, and conducted self-assessment, resource development and leadership training activities.

National

Ethiopian Community Development Council, Virginia, $225,000
Free Iraq Foundation, Washington, D.C., $536,486
Immigration and Refugee Services of America, for the Somali Family Care Network, Virginia, $300,000
Kurdish Human Rights Watch, Virginia, $405,517
National Coalition for Haitian Rights, New York, $300,000

Local

Institute for Cultural Partnerships, Pennsylvania, $150,000
International Rescue Committee, Georgia, $77,974 for Kurdish Iraqi organizing
Iraqi Community Association of San Francisco, California, $189,634
Iraqi Association of Arizona, $194,400
Kurdish Human Rights Watch, California, $213,479
Albanian-American Women's Organization, New York, $236,870
Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association, Ohio, $200,000
Ethiopian Community Development Council, Virginia, $195,121
Bosansko Hercegovacki Klub, Idaho, $100,000
Lutheran Family Services of Colorado, Colorado, $119,386
Southern Sudanese Community, New York, $86,703
Bosnian and Hercegovinian American Community Center, Illinois, $207,943
Community Teamwork, Massachusetts, $100,000
Haitian American Foundation, Florida, $154,000
East African Community of Orange County, California, $189,441
International Rescue Committee, Utah, $78,336
Office for Refugees and Immigrants, Massachusetts, $245,000
San Diego Police Department, California, $102,158
Alliance for Multicutural Community Services, Texas, $154,549
Somali Community Center of Nashville, Tennessee, $211, 705
Jewish Family and Children's Services, California, $153,998
Church of the Beatitudes, Arizona, $200,00
Interchurch Refugee and Immigrant Ministries, Illinois, $238,693
Lincoln Interfaith Council, Nebraska, $100,000
Southern Sudan Community Association, Nebraska, $264,685
National Coalition for Haitian Rights, New York, $100,000
Boat People S.O.S., Inc., Virginia, $178,974
Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, Michigan, $100,000
Rainbow Community Organization, Inc., Indiana, $50,000
New York Association for New Americans, Inc., New York, $225,000
Sudanese American International Association, Colorado, $50,000
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Oregon, $105,775
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Inc., New York, $176,700
Eastern European Service Agency, California, $149,395
National Alliance of Vietnamese-American Service Agencies, Maryland, $368,280
Free Iraq Foundation, District of Columbia, $100,000
Ethiopian Community Development Council, Inc., Virginia, $150,000

Mental Health

Newly arriving refugees come with anticipation of their new lives. They also have difficult adjustments with the resettlement experience. Some arrive having experienced severe trauma related to their flight. ORR supported the following activities under the Mental Health program: 1) training and ongoing consultation for direct service workers to increase their knowledge and skill in working with refugees experiencing distress, 2) orientation programs for refugees to U.S. mental health services, 3) orientation for mainstream mental health professionals to refugees and refugee programs, 4) clinical services to refugees of populations new to U.S. communities with little understanding about their cultures and mental health characteristics.

Three continuation grants under the mental health program were given to the following:

Catholic Charities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, $67,007
Child and Family Services of Pioneer Valley , $170,000
Bethany Christian Services, $150,000

Education Grants

In FY 2002, ORR awarded 37 new grants totaling $18,229,184 to State education agencies to assist local education agencies that are impacted by enrollment of large numbers of refugee children. These grants provide support for supplementary instruction to refugee students, fostering parent/school partnership and assistance to teachers and other school staff in improving their understanding of refugee children and their families. The following States received grants under this program:

Arizona Department of Education, $400,000.
California Department of Education, $2,050,397.
Colorado Department of Education, $350,000.
Connecticut Department of Education, $399,997.
Georgia Department of Education, $600,000.
Idaho Department of Education, $250,000.
Illinois State Board of Education, $1,296,573.
Indiana Department of Education, $100,000.
Iowa Department of Education, $250,000.
Kansas Department of Education, $250,000.
Kentucky Department of Education, $250,000.
Louisiana Department of Education, $250,000.
Maine Department of Education, $125,000.
Maryland Department of Education, $250,000.
Massachusetts Department of Education, $500,000.
Michigan Department of Education, $1,000,000.
Minnesota Department of Children/Families and Learning, $1,500,000.
Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, $400,000.
Nebraska Department of Education, $250,000.
New Hampshire Department of Education, $200,000.
New Jersey Department of Education, $1,000,000.
New Mexico Department of Education, $100,000.
Nevada Department of Education, $100,000.
North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, $250,000.
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, $200,000.
Ohio Department of Education, $400,000.
Oklahoma Department of Education, $105,569.
Oregon Department of Education, $400,000.
Pennsylvania Department of Education, $1,359,200.
South Dakota Department of Education and Cultural Affairs, $127,561.
Tennessee Department of Education, $250,000.
Texas State Education Agency, $400,000.
Utah State Board of Education, $250,000.
Vermont Department of Education, $167,252.
Virginia Department of Education, $400,000.
Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction, $400,000.
Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, $1,647,635.

Elderly Refugees

In FY 2002 ORR continued support for elderly refugees with a new discretionary grant program. This program brings together refugee service providers and mainstream area agencies on aging to coordinate programs for older refugees. A total of $8,581,641 was awarded to 27 States to establish or expand working relationships with State and area agencies on aging to insure that older refugees would be linked to local community mainstream aging programs. Grants were awarded to Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

In addition, ORR continued its working relationship with the Administration on Aging to identify ways in which both networks could work together more effectively at the State and local community levels to improve access to services for elderly refugees.

Mental Health Inter-Agency Agreement

Technical assistance for mental health activities for refugees is available to U.S. resettlement communities under an inter-agency agreement with the Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Under this agreement, telephone consultation is available for communities on mental health treatment for refugee populations. Other activities conducted by two SAMHSA professionals include presentations at refugee-related conferences, consultation to ORR on mental health issues, consultation on refugee issues within SAMHSA and program development for refugees at SAMHSA.

Victims of Torture

Treatment and Services for Torture Survivors is a program to provide assistance to victims of torture. Services provided include treatment for the physical and psychological effects of torture and social and legal services. The legislation also provides for support of research and training in treating torture victims for health care providers outside of the treatment centers.

The psychosocial and health consequences of violence with the traumatic stress that results has emerged as one of the public health problems of our time. Torture constitutes one of the most extreme forms of violence, with potential for long-term psychological and physical suffering.

This program, authorized by the Torture Victims Relief Act of 1998, provides rehabilitative services to enable torture victims to become productive community members.

Annual awards were as follows:

Center for Victims of Torture (technical assistance nationwide), $500,000.
Health and Hospitals Corporation/NYU /Bellevue, New York City, $550,000.
Center for Victims of Torture, Minneapolis, Minnesota, $550,000.
Center for Justice and Accountability (nationwide), San Francisco, California, $315,000 .
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, $525,000.
Center for Multicultural Human Services, Falls Church, Virginia, $550,000.
Jewish Family Service of Gulf Coast, Clearwater, Florida, $380,000.
Boston Medical Center Corporation, Boston, Massachusetts, $500,000.
F.I.R.S.T. Project, Lincoln, Nebraska, $381,042.
Safe Horizon, New York City and New Jersey, $550,000.
Heartland Alliance for Human Needs, Chicago, Illinois, $530,000.
Program for Torture Victims, $500,000.
Survivors of Torture International , $550,000.
Rocky Mountain Survivors, $440,000.
Oregon Health Sciences University, $449,514.
Asian Americans for Community Involvement, $296,399.
Arab Community Center, $440,000.

Second year awards were as follows:

Minnesota Advocates for Human Rights, Minneapolis, Minnesota, $250,000.
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, multi-site, $400,000.
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, $98,045.
The Hope Foundation, Tucson, Arizona, $200,000.
Lutheran Children and Family Services, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, $200,000.
Advocates for Victims of Torture and Trauma, Baltimore, Maryland, $200,000.
Catholic Social Service of Central and Northern Arizona, Phoenix, Arizona, $190,000.
Jewish Family Services, Columbus, Ohio, $155,000.
Survivors International, San Francisco, California, $300,000.

Victims of Trafficking

Trafficking in persons is a modern day form of slavery. The trafficking of women, children, and men for sex crimes, sweatshop labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and migrant agricultural labor violations is estimated to affect hundreds of thousands of people worldwide annually. Tens of thousands of victims are trafficked yearly into the U.S. alone. The practice of human trafficking is not only an affront to human dignity but also flouts the laws of legitimate commerce.

To deter this burgeoning contemporary atrocity, Congress enacted the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) in October, 2000. The law aims to combat trafficking by increasing law enforcement, ensuring effective punishment of traffickers, protecting victims, and providing Federal and certain State assistance to victims.

The legislation makes adult victims of severe forms of trafficking who have been certified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services eligible for certain benefits and services to the same extent as refugees. Victims of severe forms of trafficking who are under 18 years of age are also eligible for these benefits to the same extent as refugees but do not need to be certified.

HHS was given responsibility for the certification process under section 107(b)(1)(E) of the TVPA. To implement its responsibilities the Department delegated the authority to conduct certification activities to the Administration for Children and Families, which in turn re-delegated authority to ORR. ORR has developed certification policies and procedures to meet the needs of victims.

Certification and Eligibility Letters

For adults, ORR reviews whether the individual has been subjected to a severe form of trafficking and whether he meets the two certification requirements, which are listed below. The Act defines the term "severe forms of trafficking in persons" as the following:

Sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person who is induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age; or
The recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

HHS, after consultation with the Attorney General, may certify an adult victim of a severe form of trafficking who:

Is willing to assist in every reasonable way in the investigation and prosecution of severe forms of trafficking in persons; and
Has made a bona fide application for a visa under section 101(a)(15)(T) of the Immigration and Nationality Act that has not been denied; or is a person whose continued presence in the United States the Attorney General is ensuring in order to effectuate prosecution of traffickers in persons.

As mentioned above, minors under 18 years of age who have been subjected to a severe form of trafficking do not need to be certified in order to receive benefits. For the purposes of benefits eligibility, the TVPA defines a minor victim of a severe form of trafficking as a person who has been subjected to a severe form of trafficking and who has not attained 18 years of age. ORR issues eligibility letters, similar to the adult certification letters, stating that a child is a victim of a severe form of trafficking.

In FY 2002, ORR issued 80 certification letters to adults (80.8 percent), and 19 eligibility letters to minors under the age of 18 (19.2 percent). These letters enabled a total of 99 trafficking victims to become eligible to apply for certain benefits to the same extent as refugees.

Grants for Assistance to Victims of Trafficking

In FY 2002, ORR, through its discretionary grant program, awarded over $3.7 million to fourteen organizations throughout the U.S. The purpose of the grants is to provide non-governmental groups the resources to assist victims of trafficking in their transition from victimization to self-sufficiency. Grant funds may be used for a wide range of services, including case management, temporary housing, special mental health needs (such as trauma counseling), legal assistance referrals, and cultural orientation. ORR also aims to raise public awareness on the issue through local and community outreach and to develop resources through training and technical assistance.

In FY 2002, the following received grants under Category 1 (Services to Victims of a Severe Form of Trafficking and/or Local/Community Outreach):

Boat People, S.O.S. (Falls Church, Virginia)
Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (Los Angeles, California)
East Dallas Counseling Center (Dallas, Texas)
ECPAT-USA (New York, New York)
Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (Tallahassee, Florida)

Heartland Alliance (Chicago, Illinois)
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (Portland, Oregon)
Safe Horizon (New York, New York)
SAGE Project (San Francisco, California)

In FY 2002, the following received 9 grants under Category 2 (Training and Technical Assistance):

CAST/Freedom Network USA (Los Angeles, California)
Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)
Johns Hopkins University-The Protection Project (Washington, D.C.)
U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops Washington, D.C.)

Outreach Activities

The TVPA calls for HHS, in collaboration with other designated Federal agencies, to establish programs to increase public awareness about trafficking in persons. To that end, ORR staff has been actively involved in outreach efforts aimed at non-governmental organizations (NGOs), voluntary agencies, State and local social service providers, State and local law enforcement, the general public, and other Federal and State government officials. ORR staff established training and gave presentations in a variety of organized forums, reaching 1,957 people during FY 2002. The content of these sessions focused on the problem of trafficking, background of the legislation, the roles and responsibilities of ORR within the law, the role of benefit-issuing offices within the ORR certification process, and the benefits and services available to certified/eligible trafficking victims.