| Refugee Resettlement Assistance - 2024 |
Amount Funded: $12,500.00 |
| The ultimate goal is to seek community involvement to assist refugees who relocate to Stoughton, with the objective to get the families integrated in our community and to achieve stable lives and financial independence. Funds that we receive will be dispersed monthly in 2025 for rent, partial rents, apartment set up costs, utilities, food, clothing and transportation. While many of our Ukrainian families qualify for assistance with food, medical and clothing, none of our other international parolees qualify for ANY
assistance and are completely reliant on our support as they wait three to four months for work authorization.
On a case by case basis we plan to assist financially with the incredible number of immigration forms that need to be filed, each with a fee associated with it. (Currently work permit applications are $425 per person, and take up to 4 months to process).
We will purchase additional instructional materials for language opportunities for current students and also more adults. Materials will be purchased in January, 2025.
We will contract part time with a certified caseworker knowledgeable in trauma and who has worked with refugee populations in the past.
The impact of our sponsorship cannot be solely gauged by the number of individuals directly sponsored by Stoughton Resettlement. This has become an all-encompassing community directive. The Stoughton community has rallied to support and welcome these families, dedicating countless hours of volunteer time – everything from donating household items and money, cleaning and furnishing apartments, teaching ESL classes, assisting with job searches and placement, helping kids enroll in school, providing transportation, assisting with financial service applications, taking them to medical appointments, gifting them with welcome packages, organizing fundraisers and community events, helping to organize and conduct media interviews to raise awareness, writing letters of support for families still waiting for their work permits and so much more. The presence of these diverse individuals in our schools, churches and work places continues to enrichen our community.
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| Stoughton Resettlement remains dedicated to supporting refugee families as they transition into their new lives in Stoughton. We are seeking funding to extend our services to cover the needs of both new and existing refugee families in our community. Our goal is to ensure these families have access to safe housing, essential food and household items, reliable transportation, practical jobs, successful schooling and language learning opportunities for social and recreational activities, and adequate casework support. Part of the process of their parole into the United States also requires our assistance in addressing the increased immigration-related paperwork, interviews and costs that they face. In addition there is a need for a part-time caseworker to help these families adjust to this new situation given all they have been through. This grant will allow us to continue support of the almost 60 Resettlers already here in Stoughton, and to further expand our reach by sponsoring one or two new families in late 2024 and into 2025. This endeavor requires more than 30 volunteer hours weekly, and even more when new families arrive. The ultimate goal is to seek community involvement to assist refugees who relocate to Stoughton, with the objective to get the families integrated in our community and to achieve stable lives and financial independence.
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