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28649: Hermantin(News)Refugees may lose funding for job search (fwd)





From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Sat, Jul. 15, 2006


WASHINGTON
Refugees may lose funding for job search
A federal proposal aims to shift $2.8 million from Miami agencies that help Cuban and Haitian refugees find employment, to similar agencies outside of South Florida.
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON - A Miami agency that helps newly arrived Cubans and Haitians find jobs says it may be helping far fewer under a federal proposal that would shift $2.8 million to agencies across the United States that assist refugees from other countries.

The proposed change comes amid assertions from other agencies that too much of the relief money is concentrated in South Florida.

''Nobody likes to be fighting over how many pieces of pie. We'd like to be arguing for a bigger pie,'' said Deborah Stein, program manager for Episcopal Migration Ministries, one of nine refugee resettlement agencies that receive a total of $50 million in federal funding.

''But we can't overlook the fact that hundreds of people in other parts of the country are not able to participate,'' Stein said.

Under the federal proposal, which involves changing a formula, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, which partners with Miami-based Youth Co-Op, estimates it will be unable to offer assistance to more than 1,500 Cubans and Haitians who may arrive within the next year. The agency served 2,590 people in 2005 -- 2,082 of them Cuban.

The assistance -- $2,000 per person -- is aimed at getting new arrivals employed and self-sufficient within four months.

Considered an alternative to welfare, the funds can be spent on job training, education or even transportation.

Agencies are required to raise $1,000 in matching money to qualify for the grants.

Under the proposal, the agency would lose $2.86 million.

Other refugee resettlement groups with offices in Miami and elsewhere may benefit from the change in formula, but Lavinia Limon, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, said the change appears aimed at boosting populations outside of South Florida, where some believe a thriving Cuban community can easily help new arrivals.

''The thought is that Cubans don't need the help in that environment and that our performance was skewed, because we were enrolling so many Cubans,'' Limon said. ``Our belief is that if we can help people, and do it well, we should.''

Youth Co-Op boasted an 84 percent success rate, Limon said, but under the change being considered by the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, performance would not weigh as heavily.

The director of the program only responded via e-mail Friday, saying the department is ``committed to performance across the board.

''The agencies in South Florida have demonstrated strong performance when serving Cuban and Haitian clients and we are currently conducting analysis to ensure that these clients continue to have the best program available to them to assist them on their path to self-sufficiency,'' Martha Newton said.

The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants has enlisted support from South Florida's congressional delegation, which has written letters of protest to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt.

''Florida's refugee service programs should not have their funds cut because they excelled in creating premier work programs for the needy refugees they serve,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami.

``These proposed cuts make no sense and they will arbitrarily hurt the very people that were benefiting from this great program.''

Six agencies would gain funding under the proposed formula: Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Episcopal Community Development Center, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services and World Relief.

The International Rescue Committee and U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops would each lose about $100,000.