Agency in city gets grant for refugee service center
Catholic Community Services gets $104, 495 for project
By Bobbi Mlynar
Monday, October 29, 2007
A $104,495 grant has been awarded to Catholic Community Services to open a service center for refugees in Emporia.
A news release from Michelle Ponce, communications director for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, said that the money comes from a grant from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services.
The release stated that the project will be an effort “to address the needs of the entire community, those of the refugees as well as the residents of Emporia.”
The center will provide services to help refugees adjust to their new home and provide them with the skills and understanding to be contributing members of their new community, the release said.
Social services to be provided will include job skills training, cultural orientation, and referral to English language training to help them become culturally and economically self-sufficient.
Services will be provided to refugees who have been in the United States for five years or less.
The service center staff will be drawn from the Emporia community, the release said.
tosie (anonymous) says...
Great- lets give more money to the damn refugees....what about the American people who live here already who need assistance? I'm so sick and tired of hearing about all this "help the refugees, be nicer to the refugees, learn about their culture, stop everything so they can pray 5 times per day." NO THANK YOU!!!!!
I'm sorry, but I'm just fed up with it....
October 30, 2007 at 11:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
tosie, if the article is correct, this grant is to help Americans too. Quoting -- "The release stated that the project will be an effort “to address the needs of the entire community, those of the refugees as well as the residents of Emporia.”
Ouch, I'm glad I didn't come here as a refugee if people feel this ethnocentric. What's wrong with praying 5 times a day? How about someone who doesn't pray at all? How about someone who must wear a little cap before he prays? Shall we put him onto a train with millions of others and gas all of them in giant shower rooms?
Okay, we all have a right to be sick and tired of something. Me? I'm sick and tired of the people who claim to be good Christians, go to church on Sundays, then don't practice any of the beliefs all the rest of the week. Those are the dangerous ones. I don't like living among dangerous people.
October 30, 2007 at 12:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
netloafer (anonymous) says...
I believe the grant is a step in the right direction; it's a good and necessary step.
October 30, 2007 at 12:22 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Flips (anonymous) says...
quote by netloafer "I believe the grant is a step in the right direction; it's a good and necessary step." end of quote
AMEN!!!!!! I also believe this is "a positive" & a start in the right direction! I hope the grant is used wisely & helps many!!!
And I'm looking forward to reports of how well this grant money is working to help others!
October 30, 2007 at 1:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
tosie (anonymous) says...
You can say whatever you want about me, but I know a lot of people feel exactly the same as I do, I'm just brave enough to say something. I'm not a hateful person, just tired of people getting stuff handed to them because they are from another country. This is not about hating people, it's about being disgruntled by the system.
October 30, 2007 at 1:37 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
Just because a lot of people feel exactly the same as you do doesn't make it right. It's like listening to teenagers say "all my friends are doing it," but its poor reasoning all the same.
What do you want these people from other countries to do? Die in the streets? Let their children starve? If they get help from a relief agency, what skin is it off your nose?
In the meantime, the grant money relieves the taxpayer, many of whom have been complaining about the use of their tax dollars in this regard.
I agree, tre, if refugees were white people, I doubt the complaints would be as acrimonious.
Not long ago, as posters on the Forum discussed the Somali situation, many questioned whether there was some kind of local group that was available to train these people when they first arrive. In fact, many suggested just such a thing. I myself suggested a liaison of some kind. Now, here comes the Catholic Community Services who saw the need and applied for a grant so that they could help. That is what I call problem solving.
Now what? They get shot down? Unbelievable! Remember the image of Emporia we have been discussing? This service center for refugees is one of my new favorite things about Emporia. God Bless them. I will support them. Maybe I'll even volunteer to do a little English language training. Yes!
October 30, 2007 at 3:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Flips (anonymous) says...
If this grant works & is a good start---- maybe they will be able to latter apply for foundation grants-- that is not government money---but yet grant money-- if they can find it available & make a good match with a foundation & their cause!
I still believe this is a really great positive & a good start to a solution that is truly needed in Emporia!
October 30, 2007 at 5:07 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
create (anonymous) says...
You're right, greenday, it is indeed a federal grant. Like you, I don't mind spending my money this way.
I always think about my grandfather at times like this. No one was there for him when he arrived from Portugal in 1882. He had a job because he was promised one by British sugar plantation agents who paid for his passage. But that was all. No language, no place to live, no nothing. I thought of him again the day I graduated from college. I'll bet all of us have similar stories.
October 30, 2007 at 5:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
netloafer (anonymous) says...
I recall a return my wife and I made from Switzerland back in the nineties. When we got back to JFK the ground ops folks told everyone to line up - U.S. citizens in one line and non citizens in another, for processing. Somehow an older man, who appeared to be quite poor, got in line behind us. He had a green passport and appeared to be from the Balkans. The only words in English he could utter were "Kennedy?" and "Green Card." He looked desperate, on the verge of tears. We thought about putting him in the other line, but we didn't have the heart to do it. He needed help and we were there with him. What else could we do? I took him by the arm and brought him to the customs station with us and explained the situation to the agent. I told him that I was sure that someone who loved him was waiting for him and he just needed some help. The agent understood and got him the help he needed.
It was just a little thing I guess, but I've always believed that in some cosmic sense it was very important.
That's the America and the kind of Emporia I'd like to see, a place where caring and support overcome the problems.
I think we have a long way to go.
October 30, 2007 at 9:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )