2009 Wilson-Fish Workshop Recap

Greeting friends!
 
The Wilson-Fish Workshop provided a great opportunity for grantees to network and share information and experience. Notes on proceedings and follow-ups will be posted along with power points in the coming days.
 
Tell us about YOUR experience at the workshop!  What was your "aha" moment??
 
Below is MY recap
 
Peggy
 
The opening morning of the WF Workshop featured an address by ORR Director, Eskinder Negash, who shared his background and his work in refugee resettlement, focusing on his experiences at the local and national level. Reiterating his commitment to refugee resettlement, Mr. Negash expressed his positive experiences with the Wilson-Fish Program and the strong program employment outcomes that alternative programs produce. He suggested that the most important thing that a refugee needs is a chance to work and to become a contributor in our society.
 
As part of the interactive plan for this workshop, grantees participated in Topic Table discussions, choosing from among the following topics they identified as key issues for discussion:

    * Effective monitoring of sub-grantees
    * Enhancing performance outcomes
    * Coordination issues between privatized programs & the state
    * Data submission (to ORR) acceptance rates including secondary migration
    * Working with newly arriving refugee communities (Iraqis, Bhutanese, Burmese, Burundians & others)
 
Connecting key constituencies in the role of state coordinator is a major issue for grantees. Ann Morse, from the National Conference of State Legislatures led a roundtable discussion with Jan Reeves, ID; Becky Jordon, KY; and Richard Chacon, MA. Participation was lively and strong as folks shared experiences and raised issues and questions.
 
Ali Noorani from the National Immigration Forum led a brainstorming and dialoguing session with workshop participants to identify good ways to positively influence and publish the stories of individual refugees. This energetic discussion inspired grantees who talked about “going back and contacting their media connections” to put out some good press on arriving refugees.
 
The business and employment roundtable featured Aparna Darispudi from DOL, Daniel Sturm from RefugeeWorks, and a new voice in resettlement, John Wilcox from Corporate Voices for Working Families. Issues addressed included:

    * Access stimulus funds for employment services at the state/local levels
    * The potential for and the road to re-certification of refugee professionals
    * What employers need and want and how the refugee workforce can meet those needs.

PRM’s Barbara Day provided an update on arrivals:

    * Approximately 75,00 in FY20009 (highest numbers since before 2001)
    * 8,000 per month in August and September – no BIG bulge at the end

Barbara also talked about changes in the works for the assurance process. PRM would very much like to ensure that assurances are tied to levels of support rather than family relationships. Saying that a lot of “family reunification” cases among new arrivals cannot truly serve as anchors because they are not yet self-sufficient and are unable to help newly arriving family members. With a large caseload of new people groups, PRM expects that most of these cases (as many as 70%) will need the supports that typical “free” cases will need.
 
The ending reception (this time sponsored by ISED) is now officially a staple of the Wilson-Fish Workshop. Social networking (in person, not on blogs, fb, & twitter!) over sips and nibbles makes for a fine ending…..everyone agrees.