How to Engage Local Leaders in Refugee Welcome

July 31, 2014 1:00-2:00 pm Eastern Time

Slide 1

Welcome everyone. We give an especially warm thank you to the Office of Refugee

Resettlement whose support for this technical assistance program has made this webinar

possible.

Why did we chose leadership as the topic for today’s webinar? It’s important that leaders

recognize refugees and their contributions. They are trusted communicators with the broader

receiving community. When they send out positive communications, it really takes our work to

a new level. You are able to offer them access to a very diverse community as well. It’s more

important than ever to build greater welcome for newcomers in our communities.

Slide 2

We’re really pleased to be joined by two experts in engaging leadership to create greater

welcome for refugees. Anna Crosslin who leads the International Institute of St. Louis which

has been around for 95 years and has deep connections in the community. Anna has made

many community connections over her 36 year career in the refugee resettlement community.

She was instrumental in creating St. Louis Mosaic.

We’ll also hear from Barb Murock who works in the Department of Human Services in

Allegheny County. Barb is going to give us a perspective as a community leader herself and give

us advice on how to help others connect to the refugee population.

Slide 3

Agenda

1. Case Study: Lessons from a Refugee Resettlement Provider – Anna Crosslin,

International Institute of St. Louis

2. Case Study: Lessons from a Local Government Leader – Barbara Murock, Allegheny

County Department of Human Services

3. Moderated Discussion

Slide 4

Engaging More Community Leaders – Anna Crosslin’s presentation

I am very much looking forward to sharing with you for a few minutes.

Slide 5

Questions to consider when you’re getting started

-What are desired outcomes?

-Which leaders per outcome?

-What messages have resonance?

-How/where can you engage?

-What have you (as an organization) got to offer?

Slide 6

Desired Outcomes

Examples:

-More welcoming community

-Improved agency sustainability

-Stronger economy for all

Outcome is not an output. Outcome is not quantifiable. An output might be how many people you

served. An outcome might be how that output has improved people’s lives or communities.

Slide 7

Identifying Connections

-Different set of connections for each outcome

-If you have enough outcomes, sooner or later sets will connect/overlap

Examples: elected officials, business leaders, faith leaders, immigrant community leaders

Slide 8

Messages that Resonate

Develop messages that resonate with all of these audiences (not based on client needs).

-Formulate based on issues of the city/region, not based on client needs.

Examples:

-Millenial attraction and retention

-Immigrant entrepreneurs

-Foreign-born as new population source

Slide 9

Opportunities to Contact/Meet

-Be intentional

-Identify circles where such leaders interact

-Attend events & volunteer on region-wide committees & task forces

-Make friends with media

Slide 10

What You Can Offer

-Knowledge of ethnic communities which include their constituents & customers

-Access to immigrant leaders

-Connections to mainstream services

-Pipeline for population growth

Slide 11

Before You Reach Out

-Make a plan & perfect your elevator speech BASED ON THE BEST MESSAGING

-Make sure your internal house is in order; the best time to engage leaders, start programs & raise funds

is when your organization is healthy!

Slide 12

A Current Message

“Our community needs greater capacity to welcome and integrate immigrant newcomers by 2020 when

the MOSAIC Project reaches its goal for St. Louis to be the fastest growing region for immigrants.”

You get more opportunities by focusing on your successes. This messaging has helped the International

Institute expand.

Slide 13

St. Louis’ New & Vastly Expanded Welcoming Center

International Institute of St. Louis Arsenal Headquarters Campus

132,000/sq. ft. in 5 buildings on 3.7 acres; purchase & renovation: $4.5 million.

Capacity to expand services annually from 7,500 to +12,000 or more.

Slide 14

Anna E. Crosslin

President & CEO

International Institute of St. Louis

3654 S. Grand Blvd

St. Louis, MO 63118

(314) 773-9090 x 119

crosslina@iistl.org

www.iistl.org

Slide 15

Barbara Murock of the Allegheny County Department of Human Services, Immigrants & Internationals

Initiative

Slide 16

-Department of Human Services provides a broad range of services

-Demographics; Immigrants and Refugees in Allegheny County

- Refugees are resettled in Allegheny County and there is also secondary migration.

-Immigrants & Internationals Initiative

-Started 7 years ago when senior leadership noted that they were seeing more immigrants in

human services and wanted to sure that the services were accessible and culturally competent.

-Immigrants & Internationals Advisory Council

-Outcome of Immigrants & Internationals Initiative

-Keep the leadership as always immigrants

Slide 17

Strength in Numbers

-Collective voices

-Approaching leaders as a group

-Create a ‘Tipping Point’

Can make things happen by working together and approaching leaders. For example, we turned around

the situation at a local hospital by just meeting with them.

Slide 18

Strength in Numbers

-Come with a focused agenda, not just a meet and greet

-Understand the landscape and identify the right channel (state DPW, City, County, etc.)

Slide 19

Positive problem-solving

-Frame the issues, offer solutions

-Assume goodwill and commitment to common good (win-win)

-Always conclude with next steps

Slide 20

Program development:

-Expand Access to existing programs or services, or

-Develop specialized programs

-Catalyze ideas and activities

-Pilot promising programs

-Build sustainability and ownership

-Give credit and recognition

Slide 21

Immigrant leadership development

-Help immigrants speaking for themselves at meetings and community presentations

-Promote and support development of ethnic associations and organizers

-Facilitate Ethnic community leaders building relationships with municipal governments, schools, etc.

-Look for opportunities to connect immigrant and receiving communities

Immigrant leadership development

-Wide representation of groups on Council

-Participation in Advisory Council gives a voice, and seen as effective

-Consistent support builds a strong relationship (but don’t over promise)

-Commitment reciprocation

Slide 23

Collaboration

-Reach out and engage local institutions

-Schools, hospitals, police, local government

-Consistent outreach and dependability

-Attracts engagement from others

-Connect, Connect, Connect

-Within and across communities and organizations

-People, opportunities, resources

Slide 24

Effective strategies

-Strength in numbers

-Positive approach to problem solving

-Immigrant leadership development

-Collaborate wherever possible

Slide 25

To learn more about the Allegheny County Immigrants and Internationals Initiative:

-Your Culture is Valued Here: Lessons from the DHS Immigrants and

Internationals Advisory Council

-Immigrants and Refugees in Allegheny County: Scan and Needs

Assessment

http://www.alleghenycounty.us/dhs/imm-intern/index.aspx

Slide 26

Moderated Discussion – Susan Downs-Karkos

1. In your slides Anna, you talked about different goals that you have and you also talked about

how these things have overlap. It strikes me that it wouldn’t be possible for the International

Institute to expand like it has without engaging the broader receiving community in a welcoming

vision. Is that right?

Anna – That’s right. It didn’t start happening until probably the last decade. A large influx of

refugees came to St. Louis in 1990s and 2000s. There were also population loss issues in the 2000

census. We also got some funding to do major resources on the economic impacts of immigrants.

All of this came together to get people to pay attention to our message. You have to prepare the

environment for your message. All of this set the stage.

2. It’s been very helpful to have our top leadership speak out when we encountered negativity

around refugees. Everyone expects diversity coordinators and refugee resettlement workers to

be positive about refugees, so we really need folks like the mayor to step up and speak. Can you

share with us an example of when you had to frame the issue in a positive way that offers

solutions.

Barb – We wanted to be able to have immigrant and refugee mothers be part of the home-based

childcare network. There was resistance to this idea because of the difficulty of including them in

the meetings. We gathered a group together and began working with them ourselves. We

guaranteed a certain amount of participation and provided interpreters. You can come up with a

solution to make things work better. For instance, we make our building available for refugees and

immigrants to use since it is centrally located. We gave the security desk some visual signs to help

people know where to go. We had a landlord who was negligent and problematic. The city and

county came together with refugee groups to hold him accountable for health and safety matters.

3. Are your receiving communities welcoming to refugees in general?

Anna – From the point of view here in St. Louis, we are a largely positive community about refugees

and immigrants. Perhaps because our total population is not as high as other cities and it’s not as

threatening. We have had our share of pushback over the years because we have a large number of

unemployed or underemployed minorities in our city, and there is a perception that there may be

some competition for work. It is possible to overcome that without having your government

leadership onboard. However, it is much easier to have elected officials bought in. It takes different

messages and a different kind of a coalition depending on whether elected officials have bought in.

Barb – It depends. There was a declining neighborhood with many Bhutanese residents, and a city

council member reached out because he sees them and their contributions as positive. It’s good to

have immigrant and refugee leadership to handle cultural tensions that may come up. On a larger

scale, the leadership is engaged in all of the immigrants. We have several large research

institutions. We have according to the census one of the more highly educated groups of

immigrants in the nation, so they are sure to include them in this work too.

4. How do you overcome some of the challenges – lack of interest or fear of government among

refugee community, divisions among certain ethnic groups or legal statuses, or people who get

burnt out due to the high level of work to be done. How have you been able to be successful in

this area?

Anna – We have been around for 95 years, so we have worked with every major wave of immigrants

and refugees who have arrived in St. Louis since the early 1900s. We retain connections with many

sections of the immigrant/refugee community due to this. We have events that include many

groups. We have festivals and cultural appreciation activities. In our ESL classes, many refugee

groups start learning together. We run leadership training classes for immigrant and refugee

leaders. We have an immigrant citizens police academy, so that immigrants could do ride-alongs

with police. This brings people together because we serve everyone. They think of the Institute as

theirs.

Barb – Our advisory council really fosters building relationships rather than competition. Our groups

work together and have accomplishments together. For example, a few years ago there was a car

accident and a few teenagers from the Burmese community were killed. The Bhutanese community

got together and provided food for the funeral service. They are coming together in these ways. I

recently heard two refugees talking together about how they should get together to play soccer. It’s

good to bring together people in these ways.

Thank you both. We’re almost out of time, but we have a few more announcements.

Slide 27

Additional Resources:

Reframing Refugees: Messaging Toolkit

The Receiving Communities Toolkit

www.welcomingrefugees.org

Slide 28

Announcing the Leadership

Learning Circle

Who: People interested in joining a deeper conversation about leadership engagement

What: An opportunity to connect with a peer network and today’s speakers

When: August 18th from 2:30-3:30 pm Eastern Time

Where: Conference call

Why: To develop greater expertise around how to use leadership engagement to reach your

organization’s goals

Slide 29

How to Join the Learning Circle

Send us an email with the following:

1. The geographic reach of your work

2. Why you would like to join

3. Leadership engagement topics of most interest.

hannah@welcomingamerica.org

Deadline: Monday August 4, 2014

Slide 30

National Welcoming Week

www.welcomingweek.org

September 13 – 21, 2014

Bringing together immigrants & receiving community

Many possibilities: service projects, soccer, film, citizenship ceremonies, international food festivals and

mayoral proclamations

Tailor this to your community – make it fun!

Slide 31

National Welcoming Week

In 2013, we had 150 events with 6,000 participants. Help us knock that number out of the water!

Register your event(s) by August 7th and receive 5 free National Welcoming Week t-shirts, a large

banner and 50 buttons.

Visit www.welcomingweek.org to learn more and register!

Slide 32

NWW Resources

For ideas and more information, join us for our next Welcoming Week webinar on August 6th at 1:00 pm

Eastern. Register at http://bit.ly/nwwwebinar

Listen to a recording of our July 10th Storytelling Webinar at http://bit.ly/wwstorytellingwebinar

Access iNation’s Welcoming Week Activities Toolkit to find even more ideas and information about

creating a NWW storytelling event at http://bit.ly/storytellingtoolkit