Official Business

   Our office is pretty awesome—it's got a view of the convention center and Riverfront Park, it's two blocks away from the Plaza, a block and a half away from a taco truck, a block and a half away from this guy who sells tasty hotdogs on a street corner, a half a block away from Auntie's bookstore… the location, as I'm trying to say, is not half bad.

   And, we just reorganized the interior! It's a more useful and more comfortable space now. (Also, my desk is by a window now, so I can have natural light while also near my own drawers! Hip, hip, hooray!) What I'm trying to get across is that our office is a neat place to be, and you should swing by sometime—we're open from 10am till 2pm (with occasional exceptions, I try to make note of those), Monday through Friday. And we're real friendly. Our coffee machine is broken, so we can't offer you coffee, but we can heat water and make tea for you!

   One other thing: we're not going to be open this Friday or this Monday, because of the Easter Holiday this weekend. I'm going to go to Portland and see my grandmother, I think. Come visit us sometime!

–J.R.

Volunteer Tip #20

With the Easter season in full swing, take some time to share about the meaning of Easter with your family. Explain the significance of celebrating it, as well as a few ways your family has celebrated it in the past. 

Immigration Overhaul

   Jason Kenney is a man who has not always been easy on refugees—he is strict with asylum seekers and diligent in his guard against people trying to game the system. But, it's my personal opinion that he is firmly on the side of refugees, an opinion supported by his recent actions in overhauling Canada's refugee approval and acceptance system. The world's second largest accepter of refugees, Canada is increasing its funding by 20% and seeking to increase the rate at which it accepts and processes refugees, the number of refugees it can accept and process, and the amount of support they recieve once in the country.

   The United States is also eager to show itself no slouch on that count. Its system is, in many ways, broken—it is a one-size-fits-all system for refugees that come in astounding variety and with widely variant degrees of education and support here in the States. But the Department of State doubled the amount of funds that each refugee family recieves on arrival into the States, and many groups in cities all across the nation are seeking to address refugee needs by changing the way the system works through grassroot efforts. Spokane is doing its part, you can be sure—Global Neighborhood is contracting with groups all over the city to help insure that refugees get the attention and aid they need from people who are both informed and deeply invested in their success.

Building Community in Spokane

   I was reading through recent refugee news this morning, and I came across an interesting article that's mostly talking about long-term Burmese community leaders in Fort Wayne, IN organizing their communities to promote integration and resist discrimination. Which is exciting in itself, but makes me think about the benefits of filling out census forms. You see, the U.S. Census Bureau measures, among other things, the ethnic composition of cities in the United States and provides funding to build or repurpose community centers for each demographic. So, that's why downtown Spokane has a Senior Center.

   If the Burmese residents of Fort Wayne fill out their census forms, they'll wind up with a new center—one that will be able to host their meetings of the Burmese American Society, for example. If the refugees of Spokane fill out their census forms, they'll probably wind up with something similar, and that would be wonderful.

   As much as we dig on the United States sometimes, it does a pretty darn good job with its residents, both citizens and otherwise. Take a look at the UNHCR's examination of several EU countries:

"Applicants were not always granted interviews, given enough time to prepare for them or to explain their claims. Further, interpreters were not always on hand or were qualified.

In one country, UNHCR found 171 identically-worded interview reports, with only the name of the applicant and country of origin having been changed.

[...]

The one dozen countries studied for the report, which also applauded successes such as good cross-cultural communications skills, were: Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the United Kingdom.

More than 1,000 individual case files and asylum decisions were studied, while researches observed hundreds of applicants’ interviews and spoke with asylum officials, judges, lawyers and other officials.

UNHCR, based on the study, is calling for the EU to improve its practices, including training of officials examining asylum claims, as well as setting up guidelines and codes of conduct for interviewers and interpreters."

   Thankfully, the EU is improving its asylum-granting practices and will be able to help stem the rising tide of refugees needing our help.

–J.R.

Words from A.G.

   António Guterres is the UNHCR and he is not very excited about the current refugee situation—in a recent interview, he stated his worry that the refugee situation and the violent, environmental, and economic crises that continue to precipitate it, is only getting more serious. Specifically, he cited the Central African Republic, an oft-forgotten nation lying among Sudan, Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a small country larger than France and Belgium but overshadowed by the crises in its neighbors. He also points out that many of the high publicity refugee crises—Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and the Middle East, Sudan, Chad, Somalia, and Yemen—occur in an arc that is the origin of more than two-thirds of the world's refugees. This is a situation that needs your prayer and your attention. Are you called to this?

   António Guterres was not asked about the two crisis situations that are most pressing for Spokane, though: the ethnic Nepali refugees that have been expelled from Bhutan and are soon to be expelled from Nepal, and the Burmese refugees that are fleeing from religious and political persecution.

–J.R.

Staying Up-To-Date on Refugee Info

   One of the major challenges for people who are interested in helping and supporting refugees is staying informed, both on what's happening here in Spokane and what's happening elsewhere in the world. Here at Global Neighborhood, we try hard to maintain a somewhat-active Facebook and Twitter presence so that you can stay in the loop. The UN Refugee Agency does the same, maintaining a Twitter account with scheduled updates and Q&A sessions—so that you can find out what's going on in the world outside your door.
   This morning Kathryn Mahoney held a Twitter session from her location in Djibouti: here is the UN Refugee Agency Twitter page, and here is their page announcing live-updates. So far her conversation has primarily focused on helping foreigners understand that refugees are, fundamentally, no different from them. The UNHCR is doing a great job of educating the public on the plight of refugees, which is also one of the main side-effects of Global Neighborhood's work.

   As our volunteers spend more time with their refugee friends, they find out more and more about the difficulties refugees face and the ways that they deal with these difficulties. As we learn more about refugees, it comes up more and more in our conversations, and everyone we speak with learns a little more about refugees in Spokane.

   By partnering with Global Neighborhood, you become part of Spokane's best resource for staying up-to-date on the refugee plight. Thank you for partnering with us.

Volunteer Tip #19

Check out the following website:http://www.cal.org/co/   This site contains a number of histo-cultural guides on almost all of the countries of origins of refugees in Spokane. These guides may be helpful for you to read through over the course of your volunteer service, as new information may shed light on how different people-groups adjust to life in America. This site and many others can be found under the "About Refugees" section on the Global Neighborhood website, as well.

Volunteer Tip #18

On March 15th, refugee families (and all other households) received the U.S. Census form. It is really important for them to fill it out. However, they will probably need someone who speaks good English to help them- that is, if they don't speak very much English. The forms, unfortunately, do not come in any of the languages refugees speak. Please ask them about this form when you go to visit them next. Why, you may ask? Proving that there are substantial numbers in a population gives them the power to advocate for the city to build them community centers, and for funds to be allocated for lower-income populations. Global Neighborhood is currently partnering with the U.S. Census in trying to figure out how to get refugees counted, and for their voice to be heard! 

Volunteer Tip #17

This weekend, take some or all of your refugee family to Bowl and Pitcher for a hike. Make sure to bring some extra water and snacks! Saturday looks like it will be partly cloudy- great hiking weather! 

Save the Date!

   If you haven't already gone, then you need to set your calendars for the hottest thing in town: Global Neighborhood Volunteer Training! Friday, April 30th, we're having a volunteer training party at New Community Church (1003 E. Trent, Suite E) and we're looking forward to seeing you there!

   For the sake of adding more links to this post, I also want to direct you to our Events Calendar, which contains the low-down on what out-of-the-ordinary events are happening at Global Neighborhood. We don't have office hours listed on there, but you should also know that we're at our offices pretty much every day of the week, from 10am to 2pm (with some exceptions while people are out of town, like our esteemed Executive Director Brent Hendricks is right now).

   So, check in, and check out our Volunteer Training. It'll be a good time. RSVP with our Volunteer Coordinator at amy@global-neighborhood.org.

–J.R.