Church World Service announces program to relocate and house hurricane survivors.

Churches in 10 states can now contact local refugee offices of Church World Service (CWS) to offer housing and other assistance for hurricane survivors, according to a Sept. 30 release from CWS. The Emergency Disaster Fund of the General Board has contributed some of the grant money that is making the new program possible.

The program is providing comprehensive, individualized services to Gulf hurricane evacuees who have been displaced to the 10 states, helping them become self-sufficient in their new communities. The help is provided whether the evacuees' stay ultimately is short or long.

The following CWS affiliates are providing the new service: in Florida the CWS Miami Office; in Georgia the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta; in Illinois the Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, based in Chicago; in Kentucky the Kentucky Refugee Ministries, with offices in Louisville and Lexington; in Michigan the Programs Assisting Refugee Acculturation/Bethany Christian Services, based in Grand Rapids; in North and South Carolina the Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, with offices in Greensboro, Raleigh, and Hickory, N.C., and in Columbia, S.C.; in Tennessee the Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, with offices in Knoxville and Bristol; in Texas the Refugee Services of Texas, with offices in Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth (an Amarillo office was to open in October); and in Virginia the Virginia Council of Churches, with offices in Richmond and Harrisonburg.

CWS is enlisting and training congregations and other volunteers to provide moral and material support to evacuees, moving them beyond the "offer of an extra bedroom." CWS will not place evacuees with host families but will help evacuees find their own affordable transitional housing, working on the local level with such partners as FEMA and HUD. The CWS case management program is strictly voluntary on the part of the beneficiaries. Evacuees will be free to "opt into or out of" the program. Potential participants will get full information about the program, and individual needs will be assessed. Clients' confidentiality will be respected.

CWS is the only voluntary agency helping Gulf hurricane survivors that has both an in-house domestic emergency response unit and a refugee resettlement program. It is applying its professional refugee case management experience to help meet the particular needs of Americans displaced by the Gulf hurricanes, the release said.

Erol Kekic, acting director of the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program, said 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." Giving priority to people most in need, the program is helping hurricane evacuees sort out the myriad disaster relief programs; find jobs, health care, and affordable housing; get their children enrolled in school; and get oriented to and integrated into their new communities.

Services are being provided through CWS's established network of local agencies normally serving refugees resettled from around the world. Following Hurricane Katrina, CWS quickly became convinced that the refugee resettlement model could be adapted to meet the needs of Gulf Coast residents displaced within the US. National church bodies that support the CWS Immigration and Refugee Program stepped forward with special funding for the new program, and additional money is being raised as part of public appeals for funds to support a broad CWS program of assistance to Gulf hurricane survivors.

Church World Service is an ecumenical emergency response, development, and refugee assistance agency connected with the National Council of Churches.

Source: 10/06/2005 Newsline Special Report
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