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Gulf evacuees in Chicago, Miami are warmed by CWS program's welcome
Members of a Vietnamese refugee family that had resettled in New Orleans, then was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. CWS Miami is helping the family start over in Miami.
Photo: CWS Miami Office
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Chicago, IL – The weather may be chilly in Chicago and toasty in Miami, but in both cities, survivors of the U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes are getting a warm welcome thanks to a Church World Service-sponsored evacuee assistance program.
CWS, the humanitarian agency, is working with its Miami Office and eight of its local resettlement affiliates in communities across the U.S. to provide comprehensive, individualized services to Gulf Coast residents who have relocated to their communities. Partnerships between local congregations and refugee resettlement agencies are key to the support CWS is providing in 10 states to persons displaced by the hurricanes.
Interfaith Refugee & Immigration Ministries (IRIM) in Chicago, IL, is one of the CWS affiliates providing assistance to hurricane evacuees. Kelley Johnson of IRIM's evacuee assistance program said she assesses clients' needs, matches them with congregational sponsors, and gives "follow-up support for current sponsors who are working with cases needing more high-volume case management attention."
Her responsibilities also include participating in state-level conversations about the long-term recovery process. Around the edges, she also may find herself coordinating furniture delivery to an evacuee’s new apartment, aiding other agencies with contacts for such resources as a car ministry or a counseling hotline, or recruiting bilingual volunteers to assist evacuees who do not speak English.
By early November, IRIM had assessed the needs of 42 hurricane evacuees. Among them were a displaced woman and her 10-year-old son, from New Orleans.
Johnson said, "When I met Lois, she looked me in the eye and said, 'This is God giving me a chance to create a new life for my son.'" IRIM connected them to First Congregational Church of Western Springs, IL (United Church of Christ), which helped them locate and furnish a HUD apartment in Maywood. In the past, IRIM and the church have worked together to resettle refugees.
"Lois and her son were transported from New Orleans by bus, then helicopter, then airplane to Chicago, with no advance notice of where they were going," said David Heinz, Urban Ministries Subcommittee chair on First Congregational Church's Outreach Ministries Committee. "They were housed in an empty wing of a mental health center outside Maywood."
Reached by phone, Lois said it is still hard to talk about what she went through. "I am trying to put it behind me," she said, "but I keep reliving it." The hospitality upon arrival in Chicago was "beautiful," Lois said. Then her social worker introduced her to Heinz, and First Congregational Church "offered to help me get things for my apartment."
"I'm just thanking God that I am living and that my child and I made it through to have this Thanksgiving together and in a home," said Lois, who shared her Thanksgiving Day menu: a mouth-watering offering including ham, poultry, sweet peas, mustard greens, cornbread and sweet potato pie. "I'm thankful for everyone who helped me get where I am."
"A lot of congregation members pulled together to make this work," Heinz said. "Some got food, others got a van, others found furnishings for the apartment. The couple who helped move them brought their two sons along, and they played with the woman’s son during the move."
Johnson confirmed Heinz's statement. She said congregation members "struck a very good relationship with the two. What thrills me is that relationships are being created among people of different backgrounds who otherwise would not have gotten to know each other."
Other Gulf Coast evacuees who are getting back on their feet with IRIM's help include a refugee from Eritrea who had resettled in New Orleans in March under the auspices of Catholic Charities. He was working in New Orleans, but when Katrina struck, he was evacuated to Baton Rouge, Johnson said.
"Following the hurricane, he came to Chicago to live with an Eritrean refugee friend, who offered his hospitality," she said. "They seem quite content to be together and to have each other." Trinity United Methodist Church in Wilmette, IL, is helping both men with winter clothing, rent and transportation.
Johnson also told of three friends – a physician, diabetes educator, and bilingual teacher – from New Orleans who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina and relocated to Chicago. All need to get relicensed in order to work in their respective fields in Illinois.
"IRIM found them housing in the parsonage of First United Methodist Church of Elmhurst, IL," and the congregation has become an important support system for them, Johnson said.
The physician, Dr. Tony Capps, told Johnson that congregation members "have been right there when we needed anything. I am so appreciative of all the good things that people are trying to do."
"It is hard sometimes to be on the receiving end when I am always the caregiver," Dr. Capps said. "But it is times like these that teach us humility and thankfulness. I am learning to grow in new directions due to this tragic change in my life. God has a plan and I am doing my best to quiet my heart and listen."
Miami Churches Extend Food, Friendship To Evacuees
By late October, the CWS/IRP Miami Office was assisting 84 clients from the U.S. Gulf Coast. Jose Sanchez, who is coordinating the Miami Office's evacuee assistance program, described the services CWS has offered: "We assessed each person’s needs, provided a basic community orientation, and referred them to such mainstream services as Medicaid and Food Stamps, making sure basic needs for food and clothing were met."
"We also refer evacuees to the Principe de Paz Evangelical Lutheran Church in Miami, FL, which is offering $100 in food assistance to each evacuee family weekly. Most take advantage of this support. We’ve also been working with South Florida Work Force to provide employment services."
CWS Miami is assisting a large extended Vietnamese family from New Orleans. Some of the family members only came to the U.S. about six months ago. "The family has friends in Miami, who have assisted them," Sanchez said. "They found a house, and CWS paid for their first month's rent and got them a donated dining room set." Two family members found part-time employment at a nail salon, and a third is working part-time as a kitchen helper at a restaurant.
CWS Miami matched a young Haitian couple from New Orleans with the New Vision Emmanuel Baptist Mission, Miami, FL, which has many Haitian members. Rev. Ronald Eugene, one of the church's pastors, said, "The husband was a full-time student in Louisiana before the storm. He now wants to continue with his education and find a job in Miami." The couple is expecting a baby early in 2006.
"We'll help them with housing for three to six months," Pastor Eugene said, "and as needs arise, we will try to help them in any way possible."
CWS Miami has enrolled 29 evacuees in South Florida Urban Ministries' Thanksgiving Meal Delivery Program. "We do this every year for refugees, and this year we also enrolled several evacuee families," Sanchez said.
Giving priority to people most in need, the Church World Service program is helping hurricane evacuees sort out the myriad disaster relief programs; find jobs, health care, and affordable housing and furnishings; get their children enrolled in school, and get oriented to and integrated into their new communities.
"This privately funded program takes the professional case management and congregational co-sponsorship model that CWS uses to help refugees – people fleeing persecution in their home countries for safety in the United States – and applying it to help meet the particular needs of Americans displaced by the Gulf hurricanes," says Erol Kekic, Associate Director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program.
Every year, Church World Service serves tens of thousands of refugees, immigrants, and asylum seekers with case processing, resettlement, chaplaincy, legal, and other services.
National church bodies that support the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program stepped forward with special funding for the hurricane evacuees, and additional money has been raised as part of public appeals for funds to support a broad CWS program of assistance to Gulf hurricane survivors. CWS/IRP participating denominations are: American Baptist Churches in the USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Reformed Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Church.
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