Instructor:
- Mariah Shafer, Outreach Director, Refugee Development Center
1. St. Vincent Refugee Services is the primary resettlement agency in the local area. Samaritas and Bethany Christian Services are two other agencies helping.
2. The Refugee Development Center is a grassroots organization serving as a link between newcomers, the public, private and faith-based communities of Ingham County.
3. Some services offered by the RDC include:
- English language program
- Tutoring
- Youth Mentoring
- Cultural Broker Leaders
- School Orientation
- Early literacy
- Financial and computer literacy
- Citizenship and Civic Engagement
4. Forcibly displaced people have been forced out of their homes for any number of reasons including war, persecution, environmental catastrophes and more. This could mean people coming from other countries or people from other parts of the United States.
5. 108.4 million people were forcibly displaced in 2022. 43.3 million of those are children.
6. Of those forcibly displaced, the largest amounts come from Afghanistan, DR Congo, Horn of Africa, Palestine, Rohingya, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela.
7. The 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention definition of a refugee is someone who “owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside of their country of (their) nationality and is unable to return due to fear of death.”
8. When working with anyone it is important to understand what is culturally relevant to them in terms of housing.
9. Some local partners who help with refugee resettlement and may have resources available include St. Vincent Catholic Charities, the Capital Area Housing Partnership, and CASE Credit Union.
10. Refugee resettlement programs like St. Vincent Catholic Charities and the Refugee Development Center are funded by the State Department and other private and government grants.