Sunday, February 03, 2013
More than a decade after the first Somali refugees settled in Barron, the population is learning to get by with less government assistance than they received during those early years in Wisconsin.
The state Department of Children and Families recently announced that Menomonie-based Workforce Resource would receive 50,000 in Refugee Resettlement Support Funds this year to provide services for the roughly 300 Somali refugees who call Barron home. The contract is for the same amount as in 2012 but represents a drop of more than 60 percent from 138,000 in 2011, DCF spokeswoman Sara Buschman said.
With the reduction in funding, the agency provides solely employment services, such as helping people understand American work culture and learn job-seeking skills, and refers refugees needing more help to traditional government agencies, said Janis Ogren, training coordinator for Workforce Resource in Rice Lake.
The agency previously was able to provide more translation services and help refugees with housing, economic, educational and health care issues, she said.
"We try to do the best we can with the funding that we have," Ogren said, adding that life can be pretty challenging for Somali refugees, especially those just arriving in the Barron area.
A local Somali community association in Barron increasingly tries to pick up the slack as a result of the drastic funding cut from a peak of more than 200,000 in federal and state grants in 2007 and 2008, said Dick Best, executive director of Workforce Resource.
Many Somalis originally were drawn to the area by the prospect of jobs at the Jennie-O Turkey Store, a meat-processing plant in Barron that has been good about accommodating their cultural and religious practices, Best said. But at least 200 of the Somali residents have moved in the past two years from Barron to communities with more subsidized housing and job opportunities, he said.
Buschman explained that funding for Somalis in Barron has dropped because the number of new arrivals to the area has gone down -- the area is considered to be a secondary migration site rather than an active resettlement site -- and federal funding has declined for the Road to Work program that serves refugees in the country more than five years.
The Workforce Resource money is part of 1.5 million in federal Refugee Resettlement Support Funds being awarded to several agencies around the state to help refugee families make a new home in Wisconsin.
"Wisconsin has welcomed refugees in local communities across the state for over 35 years, where they contribute to the fabric of our state through their cultural and economic contributions, including the creation of many small businesses," Department of Children and Families Secretary Eloise Anderson said in a news release. "Most importantly, refugees teach us about the power of the human spirit and the will to overcome adversity."
Wisconsin long has funded refugee programs in the state using federal dollars, beginning with the Hmong resettlement in Wisconsin that began in the 1970s. The newest refugee populations arriving in the state are largely from Burma, East Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan and Nepal, according to the department.
To receive refugee status, a person must have a well-founded fear of persecution and not be able to safely return to their home country. Wisconsin officials expect to receive about 1,000 refugees from overseas in 2013.
Lindquist can be reached at 715-833-9209, 800-236-7077 or [email protected].