See when the ghosts and goblins will haunt your neighborhoodborhood / B2
Thomas Holbrook is used to being told that he isn’t welcome. Homeless for the past 16 years, Holbrook has been picked up repeatedly by the police and shooed away by shopkeepers.
“If you sit in a certain spot, they say it’s bad for business,” he said. When that happens he moves on, looking for “a cubbyhole to stay warm” if the weather is foul.
On Friday afternoon Holbrook stood at one of his usual posts at the top of the ramp from southbound Route 315 to West Broad Street. Holding a sign and his cane, he waited for handouts from the motorists stopped beside him.
Judging by Franklin County Municipal Court records, Holbrook knows he shouldn’t do this. Municipal Court records show 240 cases have been filed against him since he became homeless, all for
The agencies’ funding has never been solely reliant on federal dollars, but the decrease in that funding has prompted them to get creative. They are looking to grants, fundraising and even partnerships with other agencies to be able to keep offering services to new Americans.
The national total for this fiscal year was previously set at 50,000 refugees, but Trump recently changed it to 45,000, and now Community Refugee and Immigration Services, or CRIS, and US Together, the two Columbus resettlement agencies, don’t know how many refugees they’ll each be settling this year or how much funding they’ll receive.
Earlier this year, Trump cut fiscal year 2016-17 admissions from 110,000 to 50,000. In July, World Relief, another local resettlement agency, closed; US Together and CRIS had to cut staff. CRIS laid off nine employees and US Together laid off six and a half positions. Both also started fundraising campaigns.
One way the agencies are dealing with the uncertainty is to expand other services they offer, which often still serve refugees, just those farther along in their life in America.
For instance, CRIS has beenforming a refugee speaker’s bureau, said Executive Director Angie Plummer.
“I think overall the responsible plan for us is to tell refugees’ story,” Plummer said. “To help build those bridges between the community and the newcomers. We’ve always done that. You have to adapt.”
US Together began rebranding and refocusing to become more about integrating refugees into the country, in addition to resettling them, about a year ago, said Nadia Kasvin, co-founder and director. Now, US Together has a strategy that outlines four key focus areas: social, economic, civic and linguistic integration.
Integration is a great focus because it encompasses resettlement as well as needs that might arise after refugees have been in the country for months or years, Kasvin said.
That’s similar to what happened with Fatuma Siad, 33, from Somalia. She entered the country in August 2016, and with US Together’s help got a job and a place to stay. After the 90-day resettlement period she needed help enrolling her daughter in school and getting medical help.
That’s where Rachel Burch, her case manager, came in.
“I’m so happy to have help,” said Siad, speaking through an interpreter. “US Together, they help me very well. They welcomed me to the US ... (Rachel) helps me a lot and I pray for her to get everything she needs.”
Part of what will enable US Together to further meet the needs of refugees and immigrants, no matter when they arrived in the country, is a partnership it formed with the Columbus International Program.
The program is an international exchange program that promotes global understanding. Together, the agencies will open Welcoming City Career Connections, a career services agency for new Americans, profits from which will help fund both agencies’ services.
“There’s no one in the community doing this kind of work for this kind of clientele,” said Christine Garcia, director of programs at US Together. “We’re talking nearly 100,000 refugees and immigrants just between the Bhutanese population and Somali population over the last several years, and no one’s really doing this work.”
US Together also has programs for seniors, youth, parents and others. It’s been helping refugees integrate into American society for years, Kasvin said, and the agency plans to continue to grow.
“Everything we do, the end result is integration,” Kasvin said. “The goal is that the next (time), people will be able to do it for themselves.”