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Cultural orientation for refugees is subject of 2006 exchange
Amy Roach (left) and Kristie Bailey (right) at OPE/Accra with Emily Russ, who heads OPE/Accra.
Photo: OPE/Accra
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Strengthening cultural orientation for U.S.-bound refugees is the goal of the Cultural Orientation Trainers Exchange Program. The program is administered by the Cultural Orientation Resource Center at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) (www.culturalorientation.net) and funded by the U.S. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
Two Church World Service-related refugee resettlement professionals participated this year. Kristie Bailey, Manager of the CO Program at the CWS Overseas Processing Entity in Accra, Ghana, spent March 20-31 in the United States. She and eight counterparts from around the world met in Washington, D.C., then divided up for visits to two U.S. resettlement sites each.
Bailey was hosted by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service affiliates in Jacksonville, Florida, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she also interacted with other resettlement agencies, then returned to Washington for a group debriefing that included a long exchange with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Ellen R. Sauerbrey.
Two CWS affiliates were among the eight local resettlement agencies that hosted CO trainers: Refugee Services of Texas in Dallas, and the Virginia Council of Churches Refugee Resettlement Program.
Amy Roach, Program Manager for the Interfaith Refugee Resettlement Program in Concord, New Hampshire, was one of five U.S. resettlement staff selected for the second part of the CO exchange. They met April 19 in Washington, then dispersed to overseas OPEs. Roach was hosted April 20-May 2 by OPE/Accra.
"Most valuable for me," Bailey said, "was being able to meet, in person, the other CO managers from around the world. We were able to share curricula and ideas and learn more about the way the other overseas CO programs run. We are now communicating regularly as a group, and I think this will help us tremendously."
Bailey urged U.S. local refugee resettlement offices to use the CAL listserve to raise questions with CO trainers worldwide about their curricula and to keep them advised on issues of resettlement and adjustment. (To join, e-mail your name, affiliation, and title to sharyl@cal.org.)
Bailey's U.S. site visits included meetings with several Liberian families who had come through OPE/Accra's CO program. "They all said that everything they had learned in CO class was true!" Bailey remarked. "I really enjoyed the employer visits, too, and I took some great photos to use in making new posters -- for example, of time clocks at the work site."
OPE/Accra's CO curriculum has 15 units and about 18 hours of instruction over three days. The overall focus is on becoming self-sufficient through early employment.
The "training is presented in a very interactive, experiential way," Bailey said. For example, in one exercise, students are divided into two groups. One represents the refugee family and is asked, "What do you expect from the resettlement agency and for how long, and what will you do for yourselves?" The other represents the resettlement agency and is asked, "What services will you provide for the refugees and for how long?" Lists are then shared, followed by a discussion of the core services that are actually provided by resettlement agencies. As refugees depart for the United States, OPE/Accra gives them a P.O. box and an e-mail address to which to send feedback on how they are adjusting to their new lives in the United States.
Roach's "immersion experience" at OPE/Accra was complemented by field visits to Buduburam Refugee Camp outside Accra, and to Benin to observe a CO class. "I was blown away by the amount of information that is covered in three days," she exclaimed.
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