Posted by Ann Corcoran on August 9, 2015
Beware the 100 mile radius!
If I knew how to do stuff with graphics, it would be very cool to show you how many towns are within a hundred miles of Toledo. So the best I can do is show you this map and as a point of reference. Bowling Green is about 30 miles from Toledo. Every town you see here (and beyond) could be getting refugees anytime soon!
Do you know why I still wouldn’t call myself an expert on the refugee resettlement program after 8 years? It’s because only bits and pieces of how it works slip out inadvertently in news stories as the UN/US State Department and their resettlement contractors (the Volags) work hard to keep as much secretive as possible.
And, there is another thing too, I have come to find out that all the different players at all the levels of action on this program, from local to state to federal and throughout the government agencies and throughout the contracting agencies, don’t have a good handle on what each other is doing.
I’ve been told that some on the ‘inside’ follow RRW so they know the full scope of what they are doing! But, that is subject for another day and so back to Toledo, OH.
This is a news story (meant to be warm and fuzzy) from the The Blade where we learned some interesting tidbits.
If we have any ‘Pockets of Resistance’ forming in Toledo, looks like this is a pretty new program and thus you should demand a public hearing before it gets too entrenched!
The most important tidbit of news that I want you to pay attention to is the mention that the subcontractors can resettle within a 100 mile radius of their office. I knew this from hearsay, but I don’t think I have ever seen it in print! So, all of you concerned about whether your town could get refugees, go here to the federal list of subcontractors and see if your town might be within that 100 mile radius and thus fair game to be colonized!
The Blade (emphasis is mine):
Corine Dehabey is the first welcoming face for refugees who are resettled in the Toledo area.
Ms. Dehabey, resettlement coordinator for US Together in Toledo, is also the primary facilitator for their adjustment to the area.
The organization has been quietly and steadily resettling refugees in the Toledo area for a little more than a year, the only agency in the Toledo area doing so.
The refugee community is a small but growing regional population, Ms. Dehabey said. She has placed 11 families in the Toledo area, including two before US Together opened its Toledo office in May, 2014.
[….]
Ms. Dehabey opens an average of one case a month, she said, though arrivals can be sporadic. Refugees have arrived from Vietnam, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Burundi.
[….]
During the three-month stint, refugees take classes in financial literacy, mock interviewing, and other job skills. Cases are closed typically after three months, but that does not signal the end of the agency’s relationship with families. [By the end of three months they turn the refugees over to the social services–taxpayer funded services–available in your town—ed]
“We say, ‘We close the case but we don’t close the door,’ ” she said. “I still have cases that ended six, seven months ago, and they’re coming in for services here, services there.”
[….]
The organization is filling a previous void for local services, Ms. Dehabey said. In the 10 or so years before US Together’s arrival in Toledo, any refugees settled here were handled through an agency in Ann Arbor.
[….]
Opening a branch in Toledo made sense, said Nadia Kasvin, director of the Columbus office and co-founder of US Together. Toledo was another metropolitan area to join branches in Cleveland and Columbus.
US Together is affiliated with Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, a national resettlement organization, which began plans to open an office in Toledo about five years ago. The Toledo office resettles people within a 100-mile radius of the city.
“We wanted to bring services here locally so that they’d have better access to case management,” Ms. Kasvin said. “There was clearly a gap in services.”
Toledo was also attractive because of the well-established Middle Eastern populations that would provide a ready-made community for new arrivals. US Together, which has operated in Columbus since 2003, looks to open an office in Cincinnati by the end of the year, Ms. Kasvin said. Across all locations, US Together places about 600 refugees per year. ...
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