On April 20th, at its Silicon Valley Branch, Pacifica Institute hosted Refugee and Immigrant Forum of Santa Clara County with 17 guest organizations attending which were (in alphabetical order):
- AACI/CST
- Catholic Charities
- Eritrean Community Center
- IRC
- Immanuel House
- Jamina Ghanm
- Jewish Family Services
- Pacifica Institute
- Pars Equality Center
- Red Cross
- Refugee Health Assessment/TB
- Refugee Transitions
- SSA
- Sabby Kaur
- Santa Clara Law Group
- Upwardly Global
- VTA
2. Announcements
IRC: Reporting Refugee numbers, IRC is approved for 250 refugees next fiscal year. It is still easier for single employable people than others.
JFS: Jewish Family Services has resettled 67 this year, and is approved for 165 next year.
Catholic Charities: Didn’t come with the projected refugee number, they are approved
for 16 Unaccompanied Refugee Minors.
VTA: VTA has had an assessment done by a consultant for its NEXT Network project.
Currently, service is prioritized 70% on ridership and 30% on coverage of Santa Clara
County. With the NEXT Network, this may change the prioritization to 90% ridership and 10% coverage. VTA may dedicate more service to densely populated areas, which would mean losing service to some outlying areas. VTA requests time at the next meeting to make a presentation to see how people feel about this potential change. Q: What is the updated news on BART? BART through the Berryessa Station is scheduled for 2017. Q: What about BART extensions to other areas of San Jose? Not until at least 2025.
American Red Cross: Informal fact gathering about volunteer opportunities in hospitals and volunteer opportunities for refugee health care workers in the Red Cross and at the Veterans Administration hospitals. The American Red Cross has issued a bulletin for Restoring Family Links for families separated by the earthquake in Ecuador. The announcement has been sent out online.
3. Natalie Allen
Synopsis on Employment and Elderly Services for Refugees. SSA held a community meeting in late March, and discussed structure, performance standards, numbers and profiles. The community group recommended that services should remain the same as they are, employment services and ESL should remain the same. With respect to services for seniors, the next year’s allocation is so tiny, service providers will need to tap current resources to provide services. Discussed suggestions included hosting one or two events during the year, or using the money just to link seniors. The next step: The RFP will be released on May 2nd, it will be posted on BidSync (please register on this service). The searches on BidSync are by serial number.
4. American Red Cross Presentation
The American Red Cross has a variety of volunteer opportunities. Some of them are traditional, some, like the Pillow Case Program are new and taking off. These include volunteering for Disaster Cycle Services (deploying for disasters nationwide or deploying locally to disasters like house fires) has volunteer opportunities, as do Health and Safety Services, and Blood Services. There are internal opportunities, as well as FAST (First Aid Services Team), Client Casework, SAF (Services to the Armed Forces), RFL (Restoring Family Links), and IHL (International Humanitarian Law dissemination). There are also opportunities to work in fundraising. Many of these volunteer services include some training in valuable skills, or are good entries on a resume. There is also volunteering in Support Services, which provides adult supervision for Youth Services volunteers. Naomi will send out a sheet summarizing these opportunities.
5. White House task force Letter of Interest discussion
Upwardly Global asked during the phone conference call with the Task Force about applying as an organization or applying from within groups in communities – they were told to apply from within communities, so RIF has asked about collaborating. At the follow-up RIF meeting on refugee professionals with California RPB and ORR Division 9, there were a lot of good recommendations. Do we approach Upwardly Global and collaborate? What gaps do we have with respect to a Letter of Interest? Is it financially feasible? How do we make it so we can bring the items decided at that meeting to clients?
If we are doing a Letter of Interest, then we need to meet with Upwardly Global this week. Shall we incorporate them in a plan with us?
Haitixhe – We would be better positioned if we worked with Upwardly Global. Are we legally allowed to collaborate as Refugee and Immigrant Forum? We have met and pursued other initiatives as RIF before, we can do this as well.
Hawley – We need funding – on the phone call the task force said there would be no funding for travel.
Haitixhe – We should ask for funding anyway. Someone from our group should be there. We need to figure out who will be on the committee and how to fund them.
Mylene – The task force probably needs a bigger entity than just a county, there are 15 communities nationwide for the Institute, that indicates bigger geographical areas. Shall we form a subcommittee? Subcommittee will meet after the Forum meeting.
6. Pacifica Institute, Mahmut Altun
Pacifica Institute wants to hold an Iftar dinner for refugee clients. A proposed date is Monday, June 20. Members voiced that a weekend would be better, there are no available slots for weekends. June 20th is decided. Mahmut will send an invitation to clients. Pacifica Institute needs to know a rough estimate for how many will attend, and needs to know if there will be children. This information is needed before 15 days before the dinner.
7. Next Meeting
SSA will do a presentation on children qualifying for Medi-Cal. Undocumented children are now qualified. VTA will do a presentation on their Next Network project.
