Efforts take hold to assist refugees in Johnson County

IOWA CITY - Several successful efforts have been made to help break down barriers for refugees in Johnson County, and the opportunity to do more persists.

That was the message a group of service providers, school and government officials and former refugees shared Wednesday during a meeting aimed at finding ways to better serve the county's refugee community.

'As a newcomer in a new place, we face a lot of challenges: how to find a job, how to drive, how to get to a doctor appointment when we don't have a car, how to open bank account, how to get (an) immunization shot done, how to apply for (a) green card,” said Mutula Kasiriba, who lived as a Congolese refugee in Tanzania for 10 years before moving to Colorado in 2010 and eventually settling in Iowa City.

'We (Congolese refugees) are more than 1,000 people in Iowa City,” he said. 'I don't think the neighborhood can handle those people. We wish the new people coming ... can feel like they're home.”

Wednesday's meeting, held at First Presbyterian Church in Iowa City, allowed for a conversation about refugee services to continue from an initial meeting in August. This time around, service providers from Linn County joined the discussion, sharing their own achievements and challenges.

Language Barriers

Breaking down language barriers was identified as an area where strides have been made, but a need to do more exists.

Joan Vanden Berg, youth and family development coordinator for the Iowa City Community School District, said all of the teachers in the district receive mandatory training on how to best serve students who speak English as a second language. She said the district also has added an administrator who focuses on English language learning supports, and 51 people have enrolled in the district's adult English language classes.

Ann Valentine, dean of the Kirkwood Community College Iowa City campus, said the school has reached capacity in its English language learning classes, and has seen a new demographic of students.

'The challenges are changing around us all the time,” she said. 'Last fall, the predominant incoming language was Arabic. This year, that is French as more refugees are coming from sub-Saharan Africa.”

Kirkwood officials want to implement translation services for refugee students and to support career opportunities for refugees.

'Many of them come to us as professionals, extremely well-educated in their country,” Valentine said. 'Many of those professional credentials don't translate, such as in the medical profession. This is taking your language learning beyond just being able to get an apartment and a phone and a car and a bank account, but being able to practice your profession.”

Edmond Bigiba, who helped found the group Refugee and Immigrant Association and is a social worker with Broadway Neighborhood Center in Iowa City, also has plans to help break down language barriers. His organization is partnering with the University of Iowa and the Iowa City school district to create an after-school program for refugee children 'whose parents are not able to help them do their homework because of language barriers,” he said.

'Children are not able to do their homework because most parents from Africa ... have spent over 10 years in a refugee camp,” Bigiba said. 'They can't read or speak English. I was a refugee. I know how hard it is to be in a ... foreign country where a different language is spoken.”

'We Need More Support”

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, said he plans to continue advocating for a statewide network of refugee resources.

Last year, he said, the Iowa Legislature appropriated $300,000 for the RefugeeRISE AmeriCorps program, which was started in 2015 through the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service, and aims to provide services for refugees across the state.

'We need to maintain that funding and ideally find some more resources at the state,” Bolkcom said. 'We need more support.”

Though the next meeting of the group in Johnson County has yet to be set, RefugeeRISE's Iowa City group is laying the groundwork for a 2017 conference on refugee issues and services. The summit would be held in Johnson County and would be similar to an October 2016 refugee summit in Des Moines hosted by United Way.

'If (refugees are) successful, we're all successful,” said Bolkcom. 'You might not know refugees or interact with refugees, but everyone's benefitted in the state by making sure these families and individuals are successful in our communities.”

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