February 17, 2009

NEW YORK – Support for refugees living in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill and Greensboro, North Carolina, is being strengthened with the opening of two new Church World Service (CWS) resettlement offices.

The new offices will work closely with CWS's national resettlement program and with North Carolina faith communities to welcome refugee newcomers – who, by definition, have fled persecution in their home countries – and help them achieve self-sufficiency even in these difficult economic times.

CWS is one of nine national voluntary agencies that work with the federal government and a nationwide network of local agencies to resettle refugees across the United States. The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program considers many factors when choosing resettlement venues, including economic and social climates.

"North Carolina is a good, welcoming place to resettle refugees," said Erol Kekic, CWS Immigration and Refugee Program Director, New York. "There is a good mix of urban, suburban and small town; a diversity of employment; good schools and universities, and a population friendly to refugees."

Raleigh-Durham and Greensboro are not new refugee resettlement venues for CWS. The agency has resettled refugees to North Carolina since at least the 1980s, at first on its own and then through LFSC, which will continue to resettle refugees for the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).

On February 1, CWS opened its new office in Durham, which will conduct resettlement activities and provide support to refugees in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. CWS expects to open its refugee resettlement sub-office in Greensboro in March.

Together, the two new offices expect to welcome their first new arrivals in May, perhaps sooner, with as many as 175 new refugee arrivals by September 30, the last day of Fiscal Year 2009, and to build other programs of support for refugees during their first five years in the United States.

CWS has selected Mary St. John to direct its resettlement work in North Carolina. She was with Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (LFSC) for more than six years, serving refugees as an ESL teacher, case management supervisor, Raleigh sub-office director and, for the past two years, affiliate director.

St. John is a computer scientist and economist by training, with many years' work experience in Africa and Asia, where she provided technical assistance to government ministries of health and education. She served in the Peace Corps in rural Morocco, and speaks French and some Persian. She has a B.A. from Hamline University and an M.S. from the University of Minnesota.

"I am delighted to be working directly with CWS colleagues, all people who are passionate about refugees, not only about resettlement in this country but also about the plight of refugees around the world," St. John said.

St. John will be joined on February 17 by Sponsorship Developer Dan Woodliff and in March by a case manager.

Woodliff brings his experience as a volunteer manager for Habitat for Humanity and as a refugee employment developer with LFSC. For CWS, Woodliff will enlist churches and other faith communities as refugee cosponsors.

Church World Service encourages congregational involvement with refugees, finding that those with cosponsors acculturate and reach self-sufficiency faster than those who don't. Typically the cosponsoring congregation provides new arrivals with cultural and community orientation, emotional support and such practical assistance as readying an apartment, airport pickup, transportation to appointments and job interviews, school enrollment and English training.

The new CWS resettlement office in Durham is co-located with the CWS Carolinas Regional Office, one of 21 such offices charged with mobilizing community support for CWS, whose work includes not only refugee assistance but also disaster relief and sustainable self-help and development around the world. Since it was founded in 1946, CWS has channeled more than $1 billion in resources to more than 80 countries.

"I am really excited that CWS will be serving refugee clients right in our offices," said Joe Moran, who directs the CWS Carolinas Regional Office.

"There's not a story we tell about the work of Church World Service in which refugees aren't involved," Moran commented. "Having another aspect of our work here and learning about it first-hand enables us to better interpret it to the public."

While at LFSC, St. John and her colleagues built solid relationships with local faith communities. Now the synergy between the CWS resettlement and regional offices will enable her to extend her reach even further, she said.

"The Carolinas CWS/CROP Office has been here for a long time, I think about 25 years," she said, "and Joe's been there all that time with great, great connections throughout the community, so it's going to be fantastic."

A first step: Moran arranged for St. John to talk about refugee resettlement at the April meeting of Durham Congregations in Action, an interfaith association of 58 Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha'i and Unitarian congregations.

Church World Service