Author: Volunteer

Celebrate World Refugee Day and welcome the newest Texans to this community on Saturday, JUNE 18 from NOON-3PM at The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. This event is FREE, open to the public, and will offer a wide variety of activities for the whole family.

Join The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, Caritas of Austin, Catering By Rosemary, Heart of Texas Peace Corps Association, the Center for Survivors of Torture, Interfaith Action of Central Texas, Multicultural Refugee Coalition, The Refugee Health Screening Clinic, and Refugee Services of Texas as we honor the unique journeys of refugees living in Austin, welcome them to our community and celebrate the richness and diversity that they bring.

Austin’s festivities are in observance of the United Nations World Refugee Day commemorated annually on June 20.  Don’t miss music, food, and an assortment of different activities to enjoy—crafts, face-painting, interactive educational information, a cake walk, and an international fashion show. Come dressed in national or ethnic clothes and take part in the show!

Performers from Burundi, Bhutan, Congo, Cuba and Iran will share special music and dancing from their countries.

An exciting part of the festivities is a naturalization ceremony conducted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in which a group of new citizens who had come to Central Texas as refugees will be sworn in. This is very exciting for those becoming citizens and for others watching, especially since refugees have had to flee their homelands mostly due to human rights abuses. Having been rejected by their own countries’ governments they are very proud to officially call the United States their own.

The Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum is located at 1800 N. Congress Avenue Austin, Texas. For more information about the event, visit www.TheStoryofTexas.com or email refugees@interfaithtexas.org

Needs

Refugees often find themselves in need of certain items they cannot afford. This section of the newsletter is reserved for these requests.

A refugee  high school  student is in need of  a TI 84 calculator.. If you have one you would like to donate, please contact peggy.robinson@austinisd.org or refugees@interfaithtexas.org

As we are ending the 2010-2011 school year, AISD has about 550 refugee/asylee students. Burmese students, at 215, continue to be the most numerous, followed by Iraqis at 85, Bhutanese at 59, and Congo/DRC at 44. There are students from 15 additional countries.

While refugee numbers are growing, they are still a small part of the total English Language Learners (ELL). AISD has 24,508 ELL students out of 85,700 students. While the vast majority of ELL’s, 22,580, have Spanish as their primary language, two refugee languages are now in the top five: Arabic and Burmese. Iraqi refugees account for about half of the total number of Arabic speakers. In contrast, Burmese speakers are only three fourths of the total number of Burmese refugee students. Students who speak Karen, Karenni, Chin, or Kachin are coded in as “other.” (The top five languages are Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Korean, and Burmese.)

Within AISD, refugee students and their families are supported by the Refugee Family Support Office in the Department of School, Family and Community Education. Our office has 1.5 full time employees, Peggy Robinson, speaking English and Spanish, Mai Theingi Tun Than speaking English and Burmese. Additionally, we contract with Caritas for interpreters in other refugee languages.

The Refugee Family Support Office interfaces with the 50+ AISD schools who have refugee students, as well as the two Austin refugee resettlement agencies, Caritas and Refugee Services of Texas, iACT Adult ESL for Refugees, The Refugee Health Clinic, Dell Children’s Hospital/AISD Medical offices, the Austin Refugee Roundtable, Texas Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) ,Project Help, and Operation School Bell.

We maintain an informal database of all refugee students. Caritas and RST case workers send us a referral for newly arriving families. I then email the case manager with school assignment as per their address and probable grade placement based on DOB, and email the campuses to expect their arrival shortly. While this office helped with all refugee enrollments in the past, we are currently not funded for such extensive enrollment support. We do help with enrollments of special needs students, secondary migrants, and younger siblings of families no longer receiving case management. Often we attend IMPACT (meetings to develop strategies for students who are not progressing academically) and ARD (Admit, Review, Dismiss to special education) meetings with refugee parents.

Additionally, we present a monthly AISD overview orientation session for new arrivals, including all new parents, at each resettlement agency. We provide interpreters for parent meetings at elementary Parent-Teacher Conferences. We translate or provide interpreters to contact refugees and help with all middle school and high school summer school documents.

This year we have focused on connecting refugees and their families with existing school based services, such as Parent Support Specialists, Family Resource Centers, after school programs, and summer programs, providing interpretation/translation, hoping to draw our families in to existing school services.

The AISD Refugee Family Support Office is funded by a Refugee School Improvement Grant from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). AISD was part of the first 5 year grant cycle in 2006, and on September 1, 2010, we began a second, two year grant cycle.

Peggy Robinson – 414 0545 – peggy.robinson@austinisd.org
Mai Theingi Tun Than – 414 0510 – maitheingi.tunthan@austinisd.org

Next Refugee Roundtable Workshop:

“Working with Refugees” - A panel of faith based organizations will share the rewards and challenges of their  work

When: Saturday May 7th, 9 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: Austin Diocese center at 6225 Highway 290 East.

If your group would like to be on the panel,  please contact. refugees@interfaithtexas.org

Click here to register for the workshop.

Note: Breakfast will be provided

Refugee Roundtable Steering Committee:

We are in need of representatives from the faith community to be on the RR Steering Committee. Please check with your group and email refugees@interfaithtexas.org if you are interested in helping to shape the work and direction of the Refugee Roundtable.

Interfaith Action of Central Texas (formerly AAIM) cultivates peace and respect through interfaith dialogue, service and celebration. iACT for Refugees is a service program providing English as a Second Language instruction to newly arrived refugees in Austin.

The main classes are at Central Presbyterian Church which generously donates space for our program. We also have evening classes near apartment complexes where most refugees live. These classes are fully led by volunteer teams.

In addition to our core ESL program, iACT provides a six week summer program for school aged refugee children newly arrived in Austin. Starting June 13th and until July 21st, we will teach approximately 50 refugee children between the ages of 6 and 18, most of whom have never attended school in the US..

The children will be taught by a large group of volunteers led by two professional English as a Second Language teaches from the school district. The focus of the summer is English, basic math and most importantly school skills which would prepare them for fall and make their experience when school starts less intimidating.

Training for the Refugee Youth Summer Program will start mid May. Adults or youths 16 or older are welcome to volunteer for one week (9 am-12) or more. Parents are welcome to volunteer with a child aged 12 or older. If you are interested in volunteering, please email refugees@interfaithtexas.org.

The next refugee Roundtable meeting will be on Saturday May 7th, 9-12 at the Austin Diocese center at 6225 Highway 290 East. A panel discussion with members of congregations, faith organizations, and groups who are working with refugees will talk about the work they are doing. If your group would like to participate in the panel, please contact lzeidan@interfaithtexas.org

(Directions to the Diocese: If you are going north, take I-35 to the 2222 exit and take that access road north to 2222/290 East.  Turn Right.  The Diocesan pastoral Center is located immediately next to the Econo Lodge. )

Note: Breakfast will be provided. For those coming from the north, also take the 2222 exit, stay on the access road and turn left at 2222/290 east and follow the directions above.

Multicultural Refugee Coalition (MRC) is on a mission to empower refugees and political asylees settled to the Austin area towards self-sufficiency through education, community and reconciliation efforts.  We were started by 2 Liberian refugees who wanted to form a long-term refugee driven support network to ease the transition into their new community.  We offer programs in job development, computer literacy, artisan skills, gardening, soccer, youth and children’s programs.  We meet on Thursday evenings and Saturday afternoons at Trails at Vintage Creek Apartment Learning Center in NE Austin (link).  Our model is to have ethnic representatives work with their communities to guide the direction of MRC.

We have recently received some great press about our soccer and garden programs.

MRC Refugee Mens Soccer Program article: http://www.austin360.com/recreation/rivalries-left-behind-1368055.html

MRC Refugee Mens Soccer Program video: http://vimeo.com/21931271

MRC Refugee Garden Program: http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/gardening/index.html

We also recently celebrated the 50^th Anniversary of the Peace Corps with the Heart of Texas Returned Peace Corps volunteers.  This short video gives you an idea of the things we do at MRC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5kYR1mzvqg.

How you can help:

• Get involved as a volunteer.  Please contact our volunteer coordinator Laura Everett at leverett@mrcaustin.org to find out more.
• Follow us on Facebook (Multicultural Refugee Coalition) and on our blog at www.mrcaustin.wordpress.org.
• Contribute funds to help our community model continue to grow (www.mrcaustin.org/donate.html)
• Conduct a fabric drive for our sewing program- we need cotton fabric 2 yards or more.  Each week we go through at least 30 pieces of fabric.
• For more information you can contact us at mgoodman@mrcaustin.org or 512-537-9672

MRC is seeking a permanent community center to call our own in the North or Northeast area of town.  We envision this as a place for all of the ethnic groups to gather and share resources and for MRC to conduct our programs throughout the week.  If you know of any place, please let us know.

Multicultural Refugee Coalition Programs Flier

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Looking for panelists

On March 26^th, representatives from Austin’s refugee service community sat on a panel and answered questions about what services refugees receive once they are resettled in Austin. The plan for the next workshop on May 7^th is to highlight what faith communities are doing to assist refugees. If your faith community is actively working with any refugee groups in any capacity we would like to hear from you.

iACT English as a Second Language teacher Casey Kasper using the “Letter Ball” with his students. Its a vocabulary recall technique he learned at one of the ESL workshops led by Derek Hansen in March.

The Multicultural Refugee Coalition soccer team was featured in an Austin American Statesman article on Monday, April 4 http://www.austin360.com/recreation/rivalries-left-behind-1368055.html

Check out the video at http://vimeo.com/21931271