Franklin and Marshall College senior Mona Lotfipour (right) helps set up a refugee simulation that was run at President Daniel R. Porterfield’s inauguration last September. She is viewed from inside a refugee tent. Now Lotfipour is coordinating the Franklin and Marshall College students working on the March 30 conference in Lancaster. Photo: CWS
Strengthening the integration of refugees being resettled from around the world to Lancaster County, Pa., is the goal of a community conference set for Friday (March 30) and cosponsored by Church World Service and Franklin and Marshall College.
The conference is the latest in a series of collaborations between CWS and the college, whose president, professors and students actively support refugee resettlement through mentoring new arrivals, interning at CWS, running refugee camp simulations, and other projects.
“Lancaster County is already a good place for refugees to resettle,” said CWS-Lancaster Office Director Sheila McGeehan. “It has jobs, affordable housing and a diverse, welcoming community. All the social services agencies pitch in. They want to know more about refugees, so they can help more.
“Our goal,” she said, “is to make Lancaster County a model for refugee resettlement.”
Two hundred conferees will meet under the theme “It Takes a Community.” Among people registered for the day-long conference are providers of health, mental health and other social services; representatives of the public school district; English as a Second Language providers; congregational cosponsors of refugees, and volunteers. In addition, between 40-50 employers have signed up for a special lunch program.
Speakers from Lancaster and Harrisburg, Pa., and from as far afield as Minnesota, New York, Connecticut, Indiana and Washington, D.C., will address the opening plenary and lead sessions in four tracks: Building a Strong Community, Education, Mental Health, and Health. Presentations will be complemented by question and answer sessions with panels of refugees resettled by CWS.
Cultural workshops will immerse conferees in the Nepali Bhutanese and Burmese cultures. In FY 2011, CWS-Lancaster welcomed 321 refugees into the community, the vast majority from these two cultures.
The day will conclude with a “Refugee Services Needs Assessment,” whose goal will be identifying next steps for strengthening services for refugees resettling in Lancaster County. McGeehan said the hope is to make the conference annual.
What:
“It Takes a Community: Optimizing Refugee Resettlement in South Central Pennsylvania” – cosponsored by CWS and Franklin and Marshall College, with $15,000 support from the Lancaster County Community Foundation.
Where:
Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.
When:
Friday, March 30, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Registration 7:45 to 8:15 a.m. at the Alumni Sports Fitness Center (across the street from Turkey Hill on Harrisburg Pike).
Speakers:
- Dr. Daniel R. Porterfield, Franklin and Marshall College President (8 a.m.)
- Dr. Susan Dicklitch, Franklin and Marshall College Professor of Government and Director of the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement (8:10 a.m.)
- Norm-Anne Rothermel, Pennsylvania State Refugee Coordinator, Harrisburg, PA. (8:30 a.m.)
- Sheila McGeehan, Director, Church World Service-Lancaster (8:35 a.m. and 4:50 p.m.)
- Katie Kubovick, Training Coordinator, Big River Farms, MN; Marsha Manning, Refugee Coordinator, Perry Township, Indianapolis, IN; Dr. Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture, New York, NY, and Dr. Katherine Yun, Yale-New Haven Hospital Pediatric Refugee Clinic (9 a.m. workshops)
- Sarah Besky, Franklin and Marshall Visiting Scholar and an expert on Nepal, and Myra Dahgaypaw, Campaigns Coordinator for the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Washington, D.C. (10:40 a.m. and 12:55 p.m. cultural workshops)