 Annual ORR Reports to Congress - 2000
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 2000, ORR awarded eight continuation grants totaling $2,001,320 to national voluntary agencies to enhance entry level services in preferred communities with good employment opportunities.
· International Rescue Committee of Atlanta, Georgia and Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, $235,584)
· World Relief Corporation at Atlanta, Georgia; Moline, Illinois; and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, $244,739
· International Rescue Committee at Baltimore, Maryland; Charlottesville, Virginia; and Dallas, Texas, $254,502
· Church World Service at Houston and Austin, Texas; New Windsor, Maryland; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and Buffalo, New York, $273,371
· The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society at Tucson, Arizona and Greensboro, North Carolina, $176,500
· Ethiopian Community Development Council, Arlington, Virginia, $129,145
· Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service at Baltimore, Maryland; Atlanta, Georgia; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Trenton, New Jersey; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, $322,834.
· Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, Episcopal Migration Ministries, at Tucson, Arizona; Boise, Idaho; and Lexington, Kentucky, $364,645
In FY 2000, ORR awarded three new grants totaling $1,090,004 to national voluntary agencies to enhance services in preferred communities with good employment.
· Immigration and Refugee Services of America at Bowling Green, Kentucky; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Colchester, Vermont; Buffalo, New York; Twin Falls, Idaho; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Manchester, New Hampshire, $580,000
· United States Catholic Conference, Migration and Refugee Services at Amarillo, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; Seattle, Washington; Syracuse, New York; and Tucson, Arizona, $300,000
· Ethiopian Community Development Council at Houston, Texas and San Diego, California, $210,004
Also, ORR awarded funding totaling $3,077,334 to provide special services under the Preferred Communities grants to newly arriving refugees that are HIV positive. These HIV sites are Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; San Diego, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, California; Brooklyn, New York; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Seattle, Washington; Houston, Texas; Providence, Rhode Island; Salt Lake City, Utah; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Portland, Oregon; and Phoenix, Arizona.
Category 2: Unanticipated Arrivals
In FY 2000, ORR awarded one grant in the amount of $154,208 to International Rescue Committee, Washington, in partnership with Catholic Community Services/USCC, to establish a services center in Tukwila. This center provides comprehensive services to Somali and Bosnian refugees.
In addition, ORR awarded a supplement of $175,204 to Hennepin County, Minnesota to continue services to Somali and Ethiopian refugees through the East African Community Outreach Project.
Category 3: Community Orientation
In FY 2000, ORR funded 10 community orientation projects (three new and seven continuations) for a total $1,278,956:
· Ethiopian Community Development Center (ECDC), Virginia ($110,000) to conduct outreach to newly arrived refugees from Africa via a weekly radio program and monthly newsletter, cross-cultural orientation to 200 refugees, and workshops for service providers. A mentoring program will be established between arriving African refugee families and African-American families
· Catholic Charities of Boston, Massachusetts ($56,067) to provide group orientation for newly arriving refugees, support selected community leaders to serve as catalysts for community orientation, and educate mainstream providers and members of the general public on refugee issues
· Institute of International Law and Economic Development, Washington, DC ($215,743) to develop special orientation programs for refugees arriving directly to the U.S. in an emergency situation. This two-year project will research recent efforts conducted through ORR to develop a manual and curriculum for emergency resettlement service providers in the future
ORR provided continuation grants to seven community orientation projects:
· Lutheran Family Services of Oregon, Portland, Oregon ($100,000) to provide orientation to newly arriving refugees on health and social services available in Oregon and Southwest Washington to ensure access to these services. The project will serve as a bridge between refugee communities and health and social service providers. The majority of the targeted refugees are Russians, with a small number of Bosnians
· National Alliance of Vietnamese-American Service Agencies (NAVASA) in cooperation with five local Vietnamese mutual assistance associations ($300,000) to provide orientation and social adjustment services to newly arriving Vietnamese refugees admitted under the Resettlement of Vietnamese Returnees (ROVR) provision. With training and supervision from the local staff, NAVASA will recruit volunteer mentors to assist new refugees
· International Institute of Buffalo, New York ($129,782) to provide orientation to newly arriving refugees and the host community on issues related to health and domestic violence.
· HIAS for Phoenix, Arizona ($27,313) to design, test, and implement an orientation curriculum appropriate to newly arriving African refugees. The new curriculum will be made available to other service providers.
· Kurdish Human Rights Watch of Fairfax, Virginia ($100,000) to provide cultural orientation to newly arriving Kurdish refugees and asylees at 18 sites throughout the U.S. and to conduct cross-cultural training for refugee service providers.
· International Service Center, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ($170,628) to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate orientation programs for newly arriving refugees and cultural awareness training for service providers and to identify and provide specialized orientation for new ethnic communities and at-risk refugees such as the elderly, homebound women and youth.
· USCC/National Office, $69,423, to fund two affiliates—Lansing, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri—for delivery of outreach and orientation services to newly arrived refugees.
Category 5: Mental Health
Refugees arrive in the U.S. with great anticipation of beginning their lives over again. The resettlement period, never easy on any family, is especially difficult for those who have suffered torture or mistreatment overseas. To alleviate their sufferings during the resettlement adjustment, ORR supported the following activities under the Mental Health program:
· Training and ongoing consultation for direct service workers to increase their knowledge and skill in working with refugees experiencing distress.
· Orientation to U.S. mental health services.
· Orientation for mainstream mental health professionals to refugees and refugee programs.
· Clinical services to refugees of populations new to U.S. communities where there is little understanding about their cultures and mental health characteristics.
ORR provided mental health grants to the following organizations:
· Center for Victims of Torture, $200,000
· Alliance for African Assistance, $100,000
· United State Catholic Conference,$58,872, Richmond, Virginia affiliate
· International Rescue Committee, $87,216, Phoenix, Arizona affiliate
· Hmong American Women’s Association, $75,000
· Hmong National Development, $134,460
· Asian Americans for Community Involvement, $128,861
· Lutheran Family Services of Oregon and Southwest Washington, $55,431
· United States Catholic Conference, $90,191, Affiliates in Louisville Kentucky and Davenport, Iowa
· Khmer Health Advocates, $63,220
· Chicago Health Outreach, $100,000
· Victims Services, $298,921
· Regents of the University of Minnesota, $122,261
· New York School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital, $199,864
· Immigration and Refugee Services of America, $350,000
· Mountain States Group, Idaho, $135,179
· Jewish Family Services of Gulf Coast, Clearwater, Florida, $ 91,799
· Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, $150,000
· 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
Category 6: Ethnic Community Organizations
ORR supported five national and nine local ethnic organizational projects with awards totaling $2,680,866. The organizations provided self-help networks, developed newsletters and web sites to enhance ethnic community interaction, and conducted self-assessment and leadership training as follows:
Nationals
· Ethiopian Community Development Council, Arlington, Virginia, $175,000
· Free Iraq Foundation, Washington, D.C, $415,306
· Immigration and Refugee Services of America, for the Somali Family Care Network, Alexandria, Virginia, $264,672
· Kurdish Human Rights Watch, Vienna, Virginia, $320,000
· National Coalition for Haitian Rights, New York, New York, $300,000
Locals
· Institute for Cultural Partnerships, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, $150,000
· International Rescue Committee, Atlanta, Georgia, $71,199, for Kurdish Iraqi organizing
· Bay Area Somali Consortium, San Jose, California, $103,365
· Iraqi Community Association of San Francisco, California, $189,634
· Iraqi Association of Arizona, $180,000
· Kurdish Human Rights Watch, San Diego, California, $180,000
· Mohawk Valley Resource Center, Utica, New York, $68,400, for Bosnian organizing
· ROZA Promotions, Staten Island, New York, $100,000, for Liberian organizing
· Somalia Women’s Association, Minneapolis, Minnesota, $163,290
Education Grants
· Arizona Department of Education, $296,020
· California Department of Education, $2,016,380
· Colorado Department of Education, $353,575
· Connecticut Department of Education, $387,706
· District of Columbia Public Schools, $249,652
· Florida Department of Education, $2,000,000
· Georgia Department of Education, $400,000
· Iowa Department of Education, $250,000
· Idaho Department of Education, $150,000
· Illinois State Board of Education, $1,250,000
· Kansas Department of Education, $250,000
· Kentucky Department of Education, $250,000
· Louisiana Department of Education, $250,000
· Massachusetts Department of Education, $500,000
· Maine Department of Education, $100,000
· Michigan Department of Education, $1,000,000
· Minnesota Department of Children/Families and Learning, $1,000,000
· Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, $400,000
· North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, $170,000
· Nebraska Department of Education, $100,000
· Nevada Department of Education, $100,000
· New York Department of Education, $1,500,000
· Ohio Department of Education, $400,000
· Oklahoma Department of Education, $105,569
· Oregon Department of Education, $400,000
· Pennsylvania Department of Education, $1,000,000
· South Dakota Department of Education and Cultural Affairs, $130,000
· Texas State Education Agency, $400,000
· Utah State Board of Education, $250,000
· Virginia Department of Education, $400,000
· Vermont Department of Education, $114,309
· Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, $1,647,588
Elderly Refugees
In FY 2000 ORR continued support for the elderly refugee discretionary grant. This program brings together refugee service providers and mainstream agencies on aging to coordinate programs for older refugees. Approximately $6,032,742 was awarded to 25 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 Minnesota, Massachusetts, Ohio, Montana, Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, Georgia, Missouri, Tennessee, Michigan, Washington, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Illinois, California, Virginia, Nebraska, Iowa, and Texas.
ORR also awarded the Catholic Legal Immigration Network a grant of $282,740 to provide on-site technical assistance to identify problems and develop solutions to linking together the aging and ORR service providing networks.
In addition, ORR continued its working relationship with Administration on Aging to identify ways in which both the aging and ORR networks could work together more effectively at the State and local community levels to improve elderly refugees access to services.
Mental Health Inter-agency Agreement
Technical assistance for mental health activities with refugees is available to U.S. resettlement communities under an interagency agreement with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Center for Mental Health Services. Under this agreement, telephone consultation is available for communities on mental health treatment for refugee populations. Other activities conducted by the two SAMHSA professionals include presentations at refugee-related conferences, consultation to ORR on mental health issues, consultation on refugee issues within SAMHSA, and technical assistance in local communities.
Victims of Torture
In FY 2000, ORR began a new program for victims of torture, including treatment for the physical and psychological effects of torture and social and legal services, and research and training for health care providers outside of treatment centers to provide rehabilitation services.
The psychosocial and health consequences of violence with the resulting traumatic stress has emerged as one of the public health problems of our time. Torture constitutes one of the most extreme forms of violence, with the potential for long-term psychological and physical suffering.
This program, authorized by the Torture Victims Relief Act of 1998, provides for rehabilitation services to enable torture victims to become productive community members. The Torture Victims Relief Act of 1998 provides for services for the treatment of the psychological and physical effects of torture, social and legal services for torture survivors, and research and training for health care providers. In FY 2000, Congress appropriated $7.3 million for Victims of Torture, which was the first year Congress provided funding for this program.
· Center for Victims of Torture (technical assistance nationwide), $347,351
· Health and Hospitals Corporation/NYU/ Bellevue, $500,000
· Center for Victims of Torture, $500,000
· Center for Justice and Accountability, $285,918
· President and Fellows of Harvard College, $500,000
· Center for Multicultural Human Services, $500,000
· Jewish Family Service of Gulf Coast, $400,000
· Boston Medical Center, $250,000
· Catholic Social Services, Lincoln, Nebraska, $380,556
· Safe Horizon, $500,000
· Heartland Alliance for Human Needs, Chicago, Illinois, $500,000
· Program for Torture Victims, $500,000
· Survivors of Torture International, 500,000
· Rocky Mountain Survivors, $400,000
· Oregon Health Sciences University, $399,994
· Asian Americans for Community Involvement, $400,000
· Arab Community Center, $400,000.