The Creating Connections ’13 Conference bolstered our sense of purpose while deepening our understanding of the systemic short-falls that compromise refugee youths’ ability to thrive.

Presenting her thesis research on refugee parental engagement in Providence, RI, panelist Sidney Scott reported that there is a 14.5% achievement gap between ELL and non-ELL students in Providence Public Schools. This achievement gap is more significant than any other category – larger than racial and socioeconomic disparities. Despite this fact, Sidney found that the the needs of newcomer ELL students were not discussed at the district level. No language or cultural competency trainings were given to teachers, who then struggled to support newcomer refugee and immigrant youth. These are only some of the barriers refugee students face in Providence, and across the country.

In his keynote address, ORR Director Eskinder Negash presented conference participants with a numerical and narrative history of refugee resettlement in the United States. The numbers are pretty stark. Three million refugees have been resettled in the United States since 1980. But in 2011 alone there were 35.5 million displaced people in the world. While the United States resettles more refugees than any other nation, only 1/2 of 1% of displaced people are granted asylum and resettled in a third country (that is different from their home country, and the country in which the refugee camp they have lived in is located) each year. Mr. Negash illustrated what this means saying that many refugees, like those from Burundi, spend as many as twenty-seven years in camps. When he visited Shimelba Camp  (Ethiopia) in 2006, there were 17,000 people living in the camp; only 50 resettlement permits were issued each month. Clearly, there is a need that is not being met.

The official history of U.S. refugee resettlement began in 1980 with the passing of the Refugee Act. According to Mr. Negash, this timeline is misleading. “The history of the United States is a history of people, ordinary people, refugees and immigrants who came to this country in search of freedom and did extraordinary things,” he remarked. Government support for these people came after more than one-hundred years of grassroots organizing. The IRC, one of the largest and most well-known organizations supporting refugees, was founded in 1836. “ARYSE is part of this tradition,” Mr. Negash told us. He thanked student participants for being tutors, mentors, and role models for refugee youth, reminding them that “nobody needs a hand-out, but people need a hands-up.” This notion is a foundational principle of ARYSE.

Our Creating Connections Conference was a powerful event that lit the spark; it launched a network we are excited and honored to maintain, deepen, and grow. The potential was summed up by one conference participant who reflected, “ARYSE marks an immensely exciting next step for organizations working with refugees … I simply cannot wait to be involved in this incredible alliance.”

- Tara

Jenna and Fartuna – this is love!

Fartuna, an intelligent twelve-year-old Somali Bantu student, aspiring hip-hop dancer, and the oldest of six, has been my inspiration for the past four years.

As a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, I joined an organization called Keep it Real, which sends college students into the homes of Somali Bantu refugee families to provide after-school tutoring and mentoring to youth. I was assigned to tutor Fartuna and her three siblings, whom I soon realized Fartuna was expected to care for as if they were her own. Every Tuesday and Thursday I showed up at 4 pm to find Fartuna had finished her homework only to allocate her free time to preparing dinner, consoling her crying baby brother and sister, and interpreting for her mother.

The summer after I began tutoring Fartuna’s family, and upon her request, I helped Fartuna enroll in a well-reputed charter school with a smaller student to teacher ratio, a focus on the classics and language, and a longer school day. Fartuna loved her new school, but did not get to enjoy it for long. When her family had the opportunity to move into a larger apartment in a new neighborhood, Fartuna was re-enrolled in an over-crowded and under-resourced school.

Despite the abrupt transfer, and the long list of responsibilities she has at home, Fartuna continues to excel in school. Her resilience and determination inspire me every day. Fartuna’s strength in the face of struggle is the driving-force behind my work as an advocate for refugee youth.

ARYSE has enabled me to channel my inspiration and actually create opportunity. With the guidance and support of ARYSE, this summer I am founding the Pittsburgh Refugee Youth Summer Enrichment (PRYSE) Academy. PRYSE will be designed to provide a space for refugee children and youth to communicate their stories through creative expression workshops. The PRYSE curriculum will promote college readiness by helping participants build academic skills and knowledge. Most importantly, it will foster the dreams of young people, like Fartuna, who have the potential to be the next generation of globally minded leaders.

- Jenna Baron, tutor

“This conference showed me that phrases like “collective problem solving” and “collaborative learning” are not just vague, hopeful utterances but real possibilities. I have never felt as engaged doing this work as I was over the course of this weekend and felt incredibly motivated as I talked to leaders from other organizations around the country, sharing ideas and brainstorming solutions to seemingly difficult problems.”

- Yelena Bide, BRYTE Head Coordinator and conference participant

conference participants = fist alliance members

Our first annual Creating Connections Conference brought together thirty-eight student leaders representing ten refugee youth assistance programs from across the United States. Planned and hosted by ARYSE staff and a working group of Brown University students, the conference reinvigorated and developed the capacity of leaders, facilitated resource sharing, and expanded conversation about issues of refugee resettlement and education on campuses and in communities across the nation.

The weekend opened with a keynote address by Eskinder Negash, Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Panels and workshops covered topics including ELL teaching, wrap around services, resource mapping, engaging community partners, refugee youth in the public education system, and movement building. A Brown alum, Fulbright scholar, and Hmong refugee closed the conference with a speech that participants rated as a 6 on a 1-5 scale in evaluations.

Panelists speak on wrap-around services

According to participants:

“This conference has started the flow of ideas which will lead to positive changes in our organization.”

“I’m really looking forward to taking the momentum from this conference and using it to implement direct structural changes in our programming and raise standards for ourselves and our volunteers.”

“We want to create a college prep program because we were so inspired here.”

“The conference transformed individual programs working with particular communities into a more powerful coalition, ready to strengthen the meaning and impact of refugee tutoring and advocacy.”

ARYSE staff and conference organizers. From left: Liz, Tara, Julia, Maya

At ARYSE, our hope was that the Creating Connections Conference would do two things: 1) build lasting relationships and a space for collaborative problem solving, and 2) launch a movement of young people dedicated to helping refugee youth actualize their potential. The tremendous creativity, engagement, and energy of participants and speakers made the conference exceed our expectations. Our hopes were met.

Months of hard work were put into planning the conference. ARYSE staff and a talented team of students at Brown put in long hours to make it all possible. And yet in a strange way the conference itself is our beginning. The success of it made ARYSE more than a concept. The spark was ignited. Now we have to, and will, make it grow.

- Tara, Executive Director

A few days ago I spent an hour on the phone with a young woman whose story affirmed everything ARYSE is trying to do. Boroka, an ethnic Hungarian from Romania, was fourteen when she and her family were granted political asylum in the United States. Resettled in Michigan, Boroka was enrolled in a school that was not able to recognize and accommodate her particular learning needs. Rather than receiving ELL support, she was placed in a special education classroom. Boroka taught herself English by spending hours in the public library, and quickly began to excel in her studies. Nonetheless, her pursuit of education continued to be fraught with challenges.

Boroka spent ten years getting her bachelor’s degree because she did not know about FAFSA. “Information and knowledge are capital. I wasted ten years of my life because I didn’t have either,” she told me. Although Boroka had graduated from high school at the top of her class, she did not apply to a four-year college. She thought she could not afford it, and had no one to ask for guidance. So Boroka took classes at a community college and worked two jobs to pay for tuition. With a dream of becoming a professor, Boroka pushed through the challenges managing to finish her undergraduate studies with straight A’s. Now a PhD candidate at UCSF, Boroka laughed in telling me how she barely got into graduate school because she did not know she had to take the GREs with enough time to study for them. “I just didn’t have the information I needed,” she remarked.

Courageous, resilient, and hard-working, Boroka is like many of the people I have met in the last five years of working with, and learning from, resettled refugee families. The challenges she faced – of having access to information, guidance, and opportunity – are but some of the educational barriers standing in the way of refugee youth across America. Young people contend with learning to navigate new (and underfunded) systems, a new language, social landscape, and cultural norms.

Individualized academic and emotional support is critical to helping refugee youth in their time of transition. A recent study of the Alliance for Excellent Education highlighted this need reporting that of ELL students who do not have individualized support, only 30% graduate from high school. In this regard, Boroka’s story is exceptional.

In 2011, approximately 14, 000  refugees under the age of eighteen were resettled in the United States. While a network of government agencies and non-profit organizations work hard to ensure that resettled refugees have housing, healthcare, and employment, few organizations work specifically to serve youth.

The Alliance for Refugee Youth Support and Education (ARYSE) is filling the gap. We are working to ensure that 100% of refugee ELL learners graduate from high school with the knowledge and confidence they need to thrive. These young people have the potential to do more than succeed in school; they have the potential to be the next generation of globally minded leaders. We believe we can help them actualize that potential.

- Tara, Executive Director

Check out our upcoming Conference 2013