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VCC's Maryland Branch Expands Services to Refugees, Asylees
Eritrean refugee Alexander Wolde, a PPP client, discusses job options with VCC/Hagerstown's program coordinator, George Miller (left), and reception and placement specialist, Akok Deng (right).
Photo: Serhiy Dutchak
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Two new grants from the Maryland Office for New Americans (MONA), the state government's refugee assistance office, are enabling the Virginia Council of Churches (VCC) to expand its services to refugees and asylees in Western Maryland.
The Maryland sub-office of the VCC Refugee Resettlement Program, a CWS affiliate, is the only voluntary agency resettling refugees in Western Maryland. It moved from New Windsor to Hagerstown this spring to better serve its growing caseload there.
"It's mostly Meskhetian Turks, but it's diversifying," said Rev. Richard Cline, VCC Refugee Resettlement Program Director. Refugees from Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia, Burundi, Mauritania, and Burma also have been resettled in Washington County, which includes Hagerstown.
Cline commented, "What is so great is that the state refugee coordinator recognizes that Western Maryland is a significant new area for refugee resettlement and has moved to put resources into the area to support those refugees. We are very pleased that MONA has confidence in us for these grants."
State Refugee Coordinator Edward Lin praised VCC resettlement efforts, noting that Washington County has all the ingredients for successful resettlement. "Compared to the Washington, D.C. suburbs, housing is inexpensive, and the economy is also vibrant," Lin said. "Hagerstown promises that rare combination of affordable housing, solid schools, safe streets, and available jobs. We're glad that VCC is resettling there and that they're collaborating with mainstream agencies like the Washington County Department of Social Services, which is dedicated to helping families become self-sufficient."
MONA also contracts with Hagerstown Community College to provide English as a Second Language for new arrivals, Cline said, and has helped orient other Maryland state agencies to refugees' needs.
The new grants include a Refugee Employment Services Grant, which allows the VCC to serve refugees and asylees in Western Maryland who have been in the United States five years or fewer with employment services, including pre-employment training, outreach to employers, initial job placement, and job upgrades.
"It increases our capacity and allows us to provide better services to refugees who have moved here from their initial area of resettlement," Cline said.
The second, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Grant, is a Maryland state program similar to the federal Matching Grant program, except that eligibility is limited to refugee singles or couples without children.
Refugees enroll upon arrival in the United States. They receive transitional cash assistance for eight months, rent assistance for two months, and a series of bonuses tied to getting and keeping a job.
"The key component is employment and cooperating with your employment caseworker to take a job," Cline said. "If you refuse to take a job, you can be terminated from this program." In the Baltimore-Washington corridor, the International Rescue Committee, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society participate in a similar MONA program.
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