‘Bradley Buddies’
Dogs help ease travelers’ tension at Bradley Airport.
After a long COVID-19 shutdown, the furry greeters returned Thursday to Bradley International Airport to help ease anxiety and bring smiles to flyers’ faces before they board their planes.
Bradley Buddies, sponsored by Bright Spot Therapy Dogs, began in 2017 at Bradley, the only airport in the Northeast to have therapy dogs.
What began as two volunteers and two dogs at the airport has grown into a 17-dog operation where they hope to have at least one dog on shift at all times.
“A lot of airports are looking for unique ways to engage with their passengers and we thought this would be a really great addition as a passenger service. … You just make people happy, a lot of people gravitate toward them whether they’re traveling for good or bad reasons,” Alisa Sisic, a spokesperson for the Connecticut Airport Authority, said. “Seeing the dogs bring them joy and love opens up a lot of conversations.”
“We are reaching out to churches and synagogues — all in the hope of trying to find more apartments where we can place these people when they arrive.’’ — Chris George, of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services
“The one key element that we don’t have control over and can be a major obstacle is the lack of housing,’’ George said. “That’s what I’ve been spending a lot of my time on recently. … We are sending out mass emails. We are reaching out to churches and synagogues — all in the hope of trying to find more apartments where we can place these people when they arrive.’’
The New Haven agency can resettle as many as 200 refugees over the next four months — a huge total when 200 is the normal average for the entire year, George said. When combined with the help of a second nonprofit agency, Bridgeport-based Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, Inc., George said the overall total in Connecticut could reach as high as 1,000 over the next 12 months.
“We’re preparing for unprecedented numbers’‘’ George said.
The Afghan crisis could rival 2016 — when Connecticut helped more than 1,000 refugees from Syria, he said.
The Bridgeport agency is also preparing to place 100 refugees in the coming weeks in Stamford, Norwalk, and Bridgeport, said Ashley Gaudiano, a spokeswoman for the agency. CIRI would be operating under the same 24-hour notice, and the agency is preparing to move quickly when the refugees arrive after stopping first at military bases around the country, such as Fort Dix in New Jersey, Fort Lee in Virginia and Fort Bliss in Texas.
The refugees could be housed in hotels on a temporary basis, depending how many arrive. The agencies are not involved in the private rescue effort to get refugees out of the international airport in Kabul, but instead they are working to help once the refugees have arrived in Connecticut.
Goodwin University in East Hartford has offered to provide beds at its affiliated University of Bridgeport campus, where a 140-bed dormitory is available due to lower enrollments than in the past, officials said. The university notified President Joe Biden of its offer last week, saying that it would also provide services such as English language skills, job placement and career services.
As part of its ongoing work, IRIS has been helping Afghan families in New Haven for months — long before the chaos of the airport evacuation captured the world’s attention.
“We’ve welcomed, over the past month, about 10 families,’’ George said. “There is another family coming next week, and we’re doing the best we can. We often don’t have enough time to find and furnish apartments, so we have to put people in hotels, which is not ideal. But all of these families from Afghanistan who are coming to New Haven have a relative in New Haven, so there is someone to meet them when they arrive, along with our staff, and to visit them while they are in the hotel and to help them look for an apartment.’’
A national agency serves as the gatekeeper and then refers Afghans to resettlement agencies around the country, including Connecticut. Besides awaiting the refugees, the Bridgeport agency is simultaneously working on paperwork to help families.
“We’ve had well over 200 inquiries over the last week or two from people who have family in Afghanistan,’’ Gaudiano said. “Whether we’re able to do something or not for them is, in large part, contingent on whether they can get out of Afghanistan. We can make sure that we have started the paperwork process on the legal side of things. … We’re making sure that names are on the correct list with the State Department.’’