CCSWO - Refugee and Immigration Services
Catholic Charities Southwestern Ohio is the largest provider of direct resettlement services for refugees in Hamilton County and Southwestern Ohio. Over the past thirty-one years, more than 11,000 refugees have been resettled in the Greater Cincinnati area under the auspices of Catholic Charities, an affiliate of the United States Catholic Conferences Migration and Refugee Services (USCC/MRS). While these numbers have declined some in recent years (411 since 2001), we expect to resettle 55 new refugees in Hamilton County in the current calendar year.
Refugees directly settled in Cincinnati provide the backbone of this program, but are not the only persons served. Asylees, secondary migration refugees and others are served as well and we are now involved in a greater outreach effort to serve these populations.
The program has several parts:
Resettlement & Placement (R&P) involves services for new arrivals and the provision of core services as specified in the United States Catholic Conferences contract with the Department of State. These services may be viewed in three parts:
Pre-arrival services involve helping families apply for and prepare to receive relatives and partner groups prepare for and work with persons who arrive without family connections. These services include providing an understanding of the culture and background of the prospective arrivals, a discussion of expectations from all points of reference, an understanding of the available services through both the agency and the community post arrival, and the organization of basic necessities. These necessities include culturally appropriate food, clothing and shelter and arrangements for the continuing well being of the arriving individual or family. The last phase of pre-arrival is preparations for and making arrangements for meeting the arriving family and arranging transportation to their initial housing.
On arrival the family immediately needs basic needs support services including housing, household goods and furniture, food, seasonal clothing and orientation to their new life. This phase actually begins at the point of arrival and must be implemented in full immediately after arrival.
Post-Arrival Services include an intake/orientation interview, discussing the resettlement process with the family and all involved partners, obtaining photocopies of all immigration documents, providing a housing and personal safety orientation, applying for Social Security cards for each family member, developing a detailed resettlement and employment plan, and making arrangements for a host of other services. Among these other services are English language classes, school registrations, health care screenings, applications for medical cards and food stamps, filing INS change of address form, day care referrals, and follow-up on all of these items as needed.
The program provides a series of orientation and workshop activities for the newly arriving refugees including an initial interview that contains a discussion of community services, personal safety, travel loan repayment. Visits are conducted to see how the family is progressing, what items are still needed, that pocket money is available, and what problems are arising. Confidentiality is protected and releases of information obtained to discuss services with all of the systems to which referrals are made. Financial distributions and in-kind donations are documented and follow-up visits and reports are submitted as required.
Rod Huber
Director
Molly Dickens
Employment Coordinator
Cindy Grieme
Outreach Program Coordinator
Jeff Nzobigeza
Case Worker