New Series of APA Network Calls
USCCB/MRS has scheduled the next round of APA Network calls for the first Wednesday of each month from April until July at 2pm EST. Please register for these calls at this link.
New - Monthly APA Housing Survey in OneDrive - responses due by COB THURS., 3/10
PRM and ORR have reached out to national agencies and requested a monthly survey on APA housing from all affiliates. This survey gathers information on the number of APA clients in temporary vs. permanent housing, including statistics specifically on school-aged children. USCCB will collect this information on a monthly basis and report to PRM/ORR.
Please complete the "MARCH” tab of the "Monthly APA Housing Survey” in OneDrive no later than COB THURS., 3/10. Note when completing the survey - the survey is asking about all Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) Afghans that have arrived so far. For the March 15 collection, this includes everyone from September through February. For the April 15 collection, please include everyone from September to March. This should also include clients who have finished their APA period.
To access the survey, access your APA Processing OneDrive folder and click into the folder “APA Monthly Housing Survey.”
Some users may need to edit the document in Excel, rather than in the browser – this can be done by clicking “Editing” on the toolbar, and then clicking “Open in Desktop App". Questions can be sent to sevans@usccb.org
Afghan Refugee Support Services Supplement: FY2022 Third Allocation: Legal Assistance
On Friday, ORR released a Dear Colleague letter outlining a third allocation of RSS funding to the states to support Legal Assistance for Afghans as well as Policy Letter 22-11 which details the types of legal support expenses that are allowable under ORR’s ASA funding.
Federal Employees for Staffing Augmentation
In an effort to support staffing capacity in affiliate offices, the federal government has developed two streams of federal employees that may be deployed to support Afghan resettlement. The first group, Public Health Service officers, can deploy for a term of 30 days to support any health needs. The second stream is federal employees from various departments and can serve as generalists in your offices for 30-60 days. This staffing support is not designed to provide any type of oversight to your programs.
If you are interested in this type of support, please reach out to your State Refugee Coordinator.
Housing on Demand Urgent Updates
In response to the closing of the safe havens, PRM is instituting a number of changes to the HOD program.
Most immediately, PRM is going to take a 10 day pause to receiving new requests, to allow them time to process the large number of urgent requests they have received recently. The pause will be from March 10-20. This means that any HOD requests with check-in dates from now through March 28 must be submitted to USCCB by tomorrow. They will also consider emergency cases as they arrive during this pause.
Additional changes include the ending of the option to substitute one APA case for another in HOD housing. Reservations will close when the case on the original reservation moves out and another case cannot be substituted for the remainder of the reservation time, as was allowable before. This change goes into effect March 10. Also, PRM is now requiring a 5-business day window to process any requested extensions on existing reservations.
Finally, PRM wants to remind all sites currently using HOD that each case has a 90-day limit on HOD usage. If you have cases nearing their 90-day mark, please put additional energy into finding alternative housing solutions for these cases, as PRM does not anticipate granting any extensions on the 90-day limit.
Resources about unaccompanied Afghan minors:
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Paroled unaccompanied Afghan minors qualify for the unaccompanied minor program. More information on the URM program and eligible populations is available on ORR’s URM website.
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Given URM is an ORR funded program, Switchboard can answer specific questions and provide technical assistance to ORR funded programs. Interested sites or individuals can submit a technical assistance request to Switchboard. Soon they will be releasing a public benefit explainer for ORR populations, which will state clearly that paroled unaccompanied Afghan minors qualify for URM benefits.
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ImportaMi is a direct messaging service providing legal services and resources to unaccompanied children in the U.S. We confirmed they are fielding questions from Afghan minors, and you can direct sites and clients to use their services.
NEW CORE Resources
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U.S. Laws Video in Dari, English, and Pashto – This short video covers basic foundational knowledge about U.S. laws that can be used as a primer to share more in-depth details about other specific U.S. laws. CO providers can share video with Afghan arrivals and use this video with other U.S. law activities as a part of CO delivery.
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Online Course: Navigating Identity and Inclusion in Refugee Resettlement (Login Required to Access) – This hour-long course explores concepts of identity, intersectionality, and inclusivity, with a focus on their relevance to refugees’ lived experiences. Through stories and reflective exercises, learners will be able to define these terms, as well as identify strategies and take action to deliver inclusive Cultural Orientation (CO) and apply these concepts to other early resettlement services.
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New Settle In videos on Food storage, Google Maps, Driving in the US in Dari and Pashto. All of CORE’s Facebook videos can be found on the Video tab of the CORE page.
