CWS Ten-State Program Helps Hurricane Evacuees 'Survive' in New Locations
Church World Service is providing services to hurricane survivors displaced in 10 states to assist evacuees in adjusting to daily life in their new community.
A ministry of 36 Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican denominations in the United States is providing services to hurricane survivors displaced in 10 states to help them settle into their new location.
The humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) is offering services, conducted through their refugee resettlement program, that will assist evacuees in adjusting to daily life in their new community. CWS is the only voluntary organization helping Gulf Coast survivors that has both an in-house domestic emergency response unit and a refugee resettlement program.
“[The program] is intended to assist uprooted people currently living in temporary arrangements and, often, under tenuous conditions, recover their dignity and regain self-sufficiency in communities to which they have found their way or have been relocated,” said Erol Kekic, acting director of CWS Immigration and Refugee Program (CWS-IRP).
Get Our Latest News for FREE
CWS-IRP for hurricane evacuees began when CWS asked its 42 local affiliate refugee resettlement agencies if they intended to help hurricane evacuees. Eight affiliates and CWS field office in Miami, Florida responded with project proposals and will offer survivors with a list of services approved by CWS.
The program will assist evacuees resettle by helping them understand different relief programs, such as those that help survivors find jobs, obtain health care, affordable housing, enroll their children in schools, and settle into their new communities.
“The people we serve are not and will not be left to fend for themselves,” Kekic said. “We are committed to serving people professionally and in a uniform, not ad hoc, way. Moreover, we will be seeking evacuees’ input along the way and making adjustments according to what they need from the program.”
Under normal circumstance, the program is designated to serve refugees around the world settle into local areas. Among the program’s service are case processing, resettlement, chaplaincy, and legal assistance.
“CWS and its affiliates are adept at leveraging a wide range of community-based resources to welcome refugees and help them become self-sufficient,” Kekic said. “It’s not a big leap for us to be able to adjust those resources to fit the needs of people in our own country who have also lost everything and are starting over in new places.”
“We’ll help these newcomers connect into the rich fabric of social contacts, engaging local church and secular partners in facilitating their integration through the gift of personal attention, friendship, and time. Our network feels privileged to be able to lend a hand in responding to Gulf hurricane survivors’ needs and give something back to communities that have supported refugee resettlement for so long.”
Special funds have been raised for the CWS-IRP and additional money is being raised through public appeals. Participating denominations in the CWS-IRP are: American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Reformed Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, and The United Methodist Church.
In addition to providing services to Gulf Coast evacuees, CWS is continuing assistance to hurricane devastated areas. CWS has shipped more than $1.25 million in donated material assistance including CWS Blankets, kits (health, school, and kid), and emergency clean-up buckets. CWS has also provided trauma care through Interfaith Trauma Response Trainings (ITRT) as well as Spiritual and Emotional Care Response (SECR).
Church World Service is an ecumenical emergency response, development, and refugee assistance agency in more than 80 countries. CWS refugee resettlement program has helped almost 450,000 refugees in the over the past 60 years, helping refugees begin a new life in the United States. Each year, around 5,000 refugees receive help from CSW.
The eight CWS affiliate in addition to the CWS Miami Office are:
• Georgia: Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta, based in Atlanta.
• Illinois: Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, based in Chicago.
• Kentucky: Kentucky Refugee Ministries, with offices in Louisville and Lexington.
• Michigan: Programs Assisting Refugee Acculturation/Bethany Christian Services, based in Grand Rapids.
• North and South Carolina: Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, with offices in Greensboro, Raleigh, and Hickory, N.C., and in Columbia, S.C.
• Tennessee: Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, with offices in Knoxville and Bristol.
• Texas: Refugee Services of Texas, with offices in Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth; an Amarillo office will open in October.
• Virginia: Virginia Council of Churches, with offices in Richmond and Harrisonburg.
