Announcer: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the hosted, the program and its guests.

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Doni: I remember learning that this country is a land of opportunity, one in which long held dreams could be fulfilled and new ones imagined.

This is, I was taught a place where hard work yields great benefits.

And most importantly, you could be safe.

Over 25,000 refugees were admitted to the United States in 2022, each of them looking for those things that I was taught in school.

Making a new country your home is not an easy endeavor.

The challenges can be formidable, but they still come.

We are talking about these things and more today with our guests, Lorraine Rose, Director of Refugee Services, and Melissa Goodson, Chief Development Director, both of the Greater Toledo Newcomers Center.

I'm Doni Miller.

Welcome to The Point.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

You may email me at doni _miller@wgte.org for this episode and any others that you might be interested in revisiting.

Go to wgte.org/to the point.

I am so excited to have with us this morning, Melissa Goodson, who is the chief development officer, and Lorraine Rose, who is the director of Refugee Services for the Greater Toledo Newcomer Center.

That's a mouthful.

I practiced it, though, so I'd be sure to get it out right.

You guys are doing this amazing work that's pretty quiet right now in helping refugees who choose Toledo.

I might have that wrong.

So you'll have to help me with that.

But I think they choose Toledo as their place of resettlement.

Is that right?

We want to say right off the bat that we are not getting folks from the southern border right now, is that right?

Correct.

Yes, that's right.

Melissa: The folks that we are resettling come from these countries.

Lorraine: Yes, the countries so far we've reached to help to resettle individuals from Syria, Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Doni: You know, this is such an unsettled time in in this world.

And we have people moving from one country to another all over all over this planet.

What are you talked about the countries where we are getting people from most often right now.

Why are they saying that they're choosing to leave their countries?

Melissa: I think that they are facing moments in their lives where it is.

It's the one choice to be made.

They don't feel safe.

They don't feel secure.

They know that there's a better life for them somewhere else.

These are not decisions that are easily made for you to imagine ever having to just up and leave your home with the clothes on your back.

And as soon as a necessity, at this point in time for themselves and for their families.

Doni: And are they are they, Lorraine, moving with just the clothes on their backs?

Lorraine: For sure they are.

Sometimes they are resettling in Toledo with the help of a US tie, which could be somebody that, you know, maybe they was a coworker that they really know really well.

It could be a relative.

The US tie could be a person that's already housing a few families at their residence and can't absorb this new family into their residence.

When that's a situation, we have to find them immediate housing.

Sometimes they are able to house them and provide a lot of services.

So we're working very closely right now with the US ties to make sure that all of their needs that they have are being addressed in a timely manner.

So that's everything from employment to enrolling children in school to signing up for benefits with job and family services, to learning how to use technology.

Some people have never used the cell phone and we get them a cell phone and show them how to use apps and how to get GPS somewhere.

It's just it's a wide range of things.

We enroll them in ESL classes to better communicate.

We have people that speak various languages at our agency.

We use interpretive technology like translation apps, interpreters and things like that.

Doni: Let's put this in a little context.

We said in the promo excuse me, we said in the opening that over 25,000 people were admitted to the United States in 2022.

What are what do you hear?

I know that you said that it it was sometimes a moment in time that.

But what are they hoping for when they come here?

I mean, that seems like a bit of an obvious question.

But those that hope has to be really very strong in order to cause someone to just up and leave.

What are they hoping for?

Lorraine: I mean, to me, in a very basic level, it's peace of mind.

We have an is it.

Doni: Just that simple?

Lorraine: I think it's just that simple.

I mean, for example, we have a couple of employees that have been resettled in Toledo.

One of one of my employees staff members other day told me she was like, you know, I do this work to give back to people because I left my country because a bomb went off right near my house and I was scared for my children's safety.

Doni: And that's the kind of thing I think that people need to hear.

What are those things happening in the lives of those people who are coming to this country?

Melissa: I think that oftentimes it's that war.

It's it's that moment where that bomb does go off, where education isn't a possibility because of what's going on politically and wherever you're coming from, you your your your safety as a as a woman potentially not available.

So you as a family, you want to take care of those people.

And so by coming to the United States, by coming to Toledo as they choose, oftentimes, as Lauren said, because they have that tie, somebody they know here already.

Doni: And it's important, I think, to Melissa to mention that, to remind people that the status of women is certainly not the same all over this world.

And women are significantly devalued in some countries, which puts them at significant risk.

Melissa: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And so we we work with a contractor hire who helps us make sure that we're doing all of our legal legal roles or roles that we need to do to make sure that people are coming here as safely is documented as possible.

Making sure that they do have a home for them when they arrive here, making sure that we are there to pick them up at the airport, making sure that we have coats and jackets and hats and gloves, you know, whether appropriate clothing, culturally.

Lorraine: Appropriate meal when they first get here and.

Doni: We culturally appropriate them.

Really?

Lorraine: Yes.

Yeah.

Melissa: It's, you know, us as Americans, you wonder bread and macaroni and cheese might be what you might generally slap on a plate if somebody was hungry.

But that's not what the rest of the world eats.

And we want people to feel like they're welcome immediately and that they are home and that they can understand that like this is going to be building a new home.

Doni: And these are these are folks who are coming through the system the way the system was designed to be used.

Correct.

Is do you find that the system is responsive to the needs of folks who are trying to come in as refugees, or is it as complicated as we hear?

Lorraine: I mean, my limited experience with it so far, I do feel that it's responsive, but it's it's in big picture way.

It's us as a new agency in its leader area, collaborating with other agencies, making awareness, know for different needs that they have that we're not providing.

Like a small example would be when they get a prescription and the label is not in their language and they can't read it.

Something like that.

Or schools not having enough ESL services for children.

So there's all these different things that we have to collaboratively meet with people and do resource mapping and make make resources adapt more to serve them more.

Doni: Once they get here.

And you're really lucky that you guys are here once they get here.

What about the process of getting here?

Is it is it as challenging as we hear that it is?

Melissa: You know, I think for somebody who we have never been through the process.

Right.

I think that time, you know, you're you're in a fight or flight moment when you're making these decisions.

And I'm sure you want everything to go as quickly as it possibly can.

You know, as as I think anywhere following the protocols to make sure people are coming here.

I'm in that documented way is very important.

What I can tell you is that we as an agency and our partners and the way that the funding works is we we get 90 days worth of support, funding support for each individual who arrives.

Imagine coming into a country and you have 90 days and support.

And then I mean, 90 days is no time at all.

No time at all.

No time at all.

And it's very minimal.

Doni: And what's that?

Funding support allow.

Right.

So if her every individual has a 1100 bucks, give or take care of there... $1125 a person.

Melissa: $25 per person, which again for for 90 days is very minimal.

Yeah.

But that does help us with the support of, of helping them find housing, making sure that there is clothing available.

But we as an agency that's where we step in even more than what we're contracted with, with the government.

And that's where our donors come into play.

That's where our community partners come and play those resources.

Lorraine was talking about those partnerships that we have are so, so, so important to making sure that we're setting up these families, these individuals for a successful life here in the United States.

And so we step in and that next level, we help them from the moment they get off the plane to help them get housing and food and clothing.

But then we also those you know, that the first 90 days you're just trying to get acclimated.

And then after that, that's where we really step in with the education and the, you know, helping out with Social Security languages, getting folks jobs.

That's all that next step.

The post resettlement work that we are responsible for is on the shoulders of our agency as opposed to what we're kind of contracted through.

Doni: How long has this agency been here?

I understand that it is an arm of an agency in Ann Arbor, Correct?

Is that right?

And you decided to open the agency here because more refugees were choosing Toledo.

Melissa: You want to go on?

Lorraine: Yes.

So we in May of last year were given the funding from HIAS to open the Greater Toledo Newcomer Center.

It opened officially in June, but even before it had that funding specifically earmarked that way, us together was here doing the same services and so then Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County, which were partnered by in Ann Arbor, because they can serve clients within a 100 mile radius they were still receiving here and there.

Some people that were Toledo based, which is how we then wound up just having the contracts with.

Doni: Without.

Lorraine: Them together and deciding not to do it.

Doni: Where are you seeing most refugees coming from that that are settling in Toledo?

What country?

Lorraine: I would say mostly Syrians.

Doni: Mostly.

Lorraine: Mostly Syrian.

Syrian.

Syrian.

Yes.

But we do we do have other people that are trying to resettle with us.

Just because we have a small staff at this moment, we're not able to.

Doni: Accommodate.

Lorraine: Accommodate all of.

Doni: Those things.

Lorraine: We will those soon.

Like, there are a lot of Haitian people that are trying to resettle here, Cuban people.

I want a. Doni: Little bit more about that.

We're going to go to break right now, but we'll talk about that when we come back.

All right.

Okay.

We're going to go away for just a minute, but please stay with us.

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Doni: Connect with us on our social media pages.

Remember that you can email me at doni _miller@wgte.org.

And again, if you want to see this episode or any other episode that you might like to revisit, just go to wgte.org/to the point.

We are talking to Melissa Goodson and Lorraine Rose, both of the greater Toledo Newcomer Center.

It's a it's an amazing place that helps resettle refugees that are coming to this country.

And as we mentioned earlier, you are not yet getting immigrants from the southern border.

And there are some immigrants who have chosen refugees who have chosen to live in Toledo that we're not quite ready to handle just yet because of staffing issues.

You said that Syrians we were going to break, we were getting most of our refugees from Syria, other places as well.

Lorraine: That I would say that's probably the bulk of both.

Doni: Yeah, you mentioned the countries early on and the the primary concerns of people coming.

I mean, I'm amazed that you get 1100 dollars and that's all that you get to resettle that family.

And that's that's for every single thing they need.

Right.

Clothing and rent and and you're having trouble finding housing?

Melissa: Yeah, I think systemically finding housing is just difficult.

Finding affordable housing is even more difficult.

And then you also have somebody who's coming to the country who has no credit background, who has no employment quite yet.

We're helping them make that happen.

But if you're a landlord, oftentimes, you know, those those protocols are in place to assure that you've got a good renter.

But we we can help partner.

We can help vouch for those people.

But we're looking for for partners in the community who are willing to help us with those housing needs.

And not only do we sometimes just have, you know, a family, a mother, a father, a child, sometimes there's multi-generational families and trying to find space that is large enough for those multi-generational families is also really difficult.

Doni: I didn't think about that, that that it's not always just the immediate family that they would be bringing along parents, grandparents and that sort of thing.

What about employment?

How is that handled?

Lorraine: We have started some partnerships with local agencies on, for example, we have a family that is going to be taking advantage of the welding classes at the Cherry Street Mission, and they're excited about that.

Yeah, that's a. Doni: Great.

Lorraine: Organization.

Yes.

We've also partnered with some local employment agencies on Oaks Community College to try to get classes and things like that going.

We're in the beginning stages of it, but and we do reach out to like the middle East market sometimes to get people employed there or Syrian restaurants, stuff like that.

So we're making strides there, small strides, but they're happening.

You know.

Doni: One of the things I was we were talking about when we were a break is I saw a special on not too long ago about the shortage in major American professions like medicine, for instance.

And you have people coming over who are doctors and dentists.

Melissa, as you said, why don't you tell that story?

Melissa: The thing to remember is that we're we're we're we're we're working human to Human.

We're working with people who have had, you know, high caliber professions who have gone through medical school, have gone to law school, who are dentists, who are nurses, who are teachers in their native country.

And so they come here.

And because of how the process works and how they come into the country, oftentimes with the the either the needs to be re license and whatever they're looking for and how long that actually takes to have happen, that the the language barriers potentially people are coming with these massive professions and then what's available to them is, you know for an entry job, walking in the door, you know, is a Walmart, is a McDonald's.

And these are.

Doni: So much less than what they were trained for.

Melissa: What they're trained for.

And we do our best to do it with dignity.

We do our best to honor that.

We do our best to help them along that very long road, to help them get back to the lifestyle that they're used to.

But it takes a long time.

Doni: Yeah.

Did I hear this story?

This might be wrong, so correct me if I'm wrong.

Did I hear a story that you had a family that came over and when you asked the dad what he wanted to do, he said, I want to work in a gold mine.

Lorraine: We did have a family like that.

Yes.

Yes.

Doni: And this was in a gold mine, which just and I don't remember the response that he got, but it just gives you a better idea of the major degree of transition that needs to be made.

He really thought that he worked in a gold mine then wherever he'd come from.

And so he thought he could do that here.

Yeah.

Lorraine: Yeah.

Doni: But, you know, you've got some good stories to tell.

You've got.

Why don't you share a success story with us, you guys?

Lorraine: Yes.

We have one family from Sudan that when they first came here, they were living in an extended stay.

We moved them into an apartment.

They had never used any technology, cell phone, computer, anything like that.

We helped them get a cell phone.

We got computers donated.

My one staff member actually sat with them and showed them how to.

So our agency is right near the fresh time on Mineral Tap.

Yeah.

So she was like, Let's just see from here to there and you'll get there yourself.

And he did.

And he was ecstatic when he came back.

And I'm like, you know, it's something that to us is so we take it for granted.

Right.

And then also the little girl in the family has been enrolled in school.

She's made some friends.

She went on a trip to the mall.

She felt really connected with people doing that.

We had a bike donated for them for some transportation.

And the adult in that family is one of the adults doing the Welding and Cherry Street mission.

Doni: So it's can people donate things like clothes and you mentioned a bike.

And if you're if you only get 1100 dollars to work with and you're coming from Syria to this climate, obviously there are some needs that that need to be met.

Do they just take things over to your offices on Tallmadge?

Lorraine: They can.

Yes, they can.

And we do receive a lot of donations.

We have a. Doni: Ton of.

Lorraine: We've received we would need, I would say, more coats, hats, mittens.

If there's laptop computers, that's always in need.

Doni: Do they need to be new laptop computers?

Lorraine: They don't need to be new because we can help scrub them or reset them or whatever needs to be done.

I would say employment opportunities.

If people know of employment opportunities that they can share with us.

Doni: What kinds of employment opportunities are you looking for?

Lorraine: To me it's varied, but if it's so varied, like I guess so like for example, we were talking about we have a family who was a medical doctor.

His sons were going to school to become pharmacists.

Now they're here and they have to worry about reciprocity with the M.D., ensure the children can't like do the pharmacy school right away.

So maybe like medical in a in like the medical field.

Doni: It sounds like if people have opportunities, they might just want to call you and say, this is what I have.

And is there any, any way that you could use that?

Melissa: I think ultimately we're really looking for just partners and whatever kind of input in whatever field there is someone who understands that this is going to be a transition for somebody.

This is that you're going to be working with somebody who may not speak your language, probably working with somebody who has experienced a little bit of trauma, but is also very smart and capable and fun and lovely and wants the best life for themselves and their family.

That's why they made this difficult, horribly difficult decision to up and leave their household.

And so partners, that's what we're looking for, right?

Doni: I love that.

You said earlier we're working people to people.

And that's what's really hard, I think, for, for people to keep in mind.

Has anybody ever gotten here to your place and said, this is not at all what I'm looking for and I want to go back home?

No, no.

Melissa: I think to go back home.

Lorraine: No, I. Melissa: Don't think so.

I think I think it becomes a starting point when they first arrive to the United States, wherever they land, as a starting point for the rest of their lives.

And so does that mean they're going to stay in Toledo forever?

I don't know.

But I don't know of anybody who has decided that this is worse than where they came from.

Doni: Yeah.

And yeah, and that's a really good point as well.

So you guys are their lifeline for a long time, it sounds like.

Lorraine: Yes.

Melissa: We really are.

We get to work with families and we will stay there partners as long as we are in business.

And that's really wonderful because we get to see these children who come over and who who did, you know, start out in the elementary school and then are going to the mall with their friends and making friends right after college being a part of that.

We also at a Jewish Family Services, Washtenaw County Powers, Greater Toledo Newcomer Center.

We offer and actually employ a lot of our resettlement clients as well.

What they've been through the process.

Who better to teach you than somebody who's already gone through the process?

And we want to be incredibly supportive as we can with anybody who comes over.

So they've got the skill set and the want and need and passion to continue to help others make it in their new lives here and become our new friends and new neighbors.

Then we work with them through our agency as well as our team members.

Doni: Are you guys do you work in integrating them into existing communities here?

So do you introduce them?

For instance, to the Syrian community here or the Cuban community here, although we don't have a very large Cuban community, but true.

Lorraine: Yes, we do as much as we can.

For example, like we have a realtor who gave a place to live to a family and she because she also has similar experience, she provided all the things in the house before they moved in, like there was cutlery, there was clothing, there was, you know, blankets, like everything, food in the refrigerator.

So we're very blessed to have community partnerships like that with people that do understand what it's like to come here and go through all of that.

It takes a village of people.

Doni: It absolutely does.

I am really glad that you all are here doing this work.

I think that we take in this country for granted so many things like safety, and I know it's not perfect.

It's absolutely not perfect.

But it is it is not a luxury in this country.

Education is not a luxury in this in this country.

Food for some certainly is a luxury, but not quite the way not quite the way your clients are experiencing it.

So thank you so much for all you do.

And as your organization matures and you grow and you get more people coming in, I hope you come back and talk to us about that.

Melissa: Thank you.

Can't wait to share.

Lorraine: Some more.

Doni: Success stories.

Yeah, I can't wait to talk to you again.

Thank you so much for joining us today and we hope to see you again soon.

Until the point.

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They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE Public Media.

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