Building Community Together – Mankato Area Refugee Community Engagement Project
August 13, 2012 (Mankato, MN): Mankato Area Refugee Community Engagement
This meeting was sponsored by the Minnesota Council of Churches, Office of Refugee Services for the Mankato Area. About 50 community members met for the Refugee Community Consortium at the Blue Earth County Library this afternoon from 1:00 – 2:30 pm. The agenda included announcements, introductions, “Remembering Our Immigrant Ancestry,” stories shared by local refugee community members, discussion, and reflections.
Minnesota Council of Churches Refugee Services program, based in Minneapolis, opened a sub-office to serve refugees in the Mankato area on April 1, 2012. The Program connects mainstream volunteers with opportunities to connect with refugees as they transition to live in the United States, and provides opportunities for refugees to participate in community volunteerism alongside other volunteers. Mankato residents are seeking ways to know one another and this project provides opportunities to work side by side to know one another better through working together to build a better Mankato. Community events/activities engage refugees to share their story of coming to the Mankato to promote a broader understanding of the refugee experience.
The minority population in Mankato is growing at a faster rate than the minority population in Minnesota overall. According to the US Census bureau, the minority population in Mankato increased 68% from 2000 to 2010. The main source of this growth is due to the in-migration of refugee populations. Refugees arrive to the United States with few belongings and material resources, yet despite these limitations, they have the opportunity to become successful American citizens and are choosing to build lives in Mankato. Since opening the MCC office, it has become clear that community members, refugees and non-refugees, are curious about one another but there are limited avenues to get to know one another in meaningful ways.
In May of 2012, MCC hosted the first Mankato-Area Refugee Community Consortium meeting. There were more than 45 attendees at the first quarterly meeting representing all sectors including: Landlords, refugee community leaders, health providers, mental health providers, service providers, school district representatives, employers, public officials, public safety offers, public assistance agencies, housing officials, Domestic violence shelters, and more. The group agreed to meet quarterly to continue community planning and will be engaged in planning for and implementing this project, if funded. The overall tone of the meeting was that everyone wants to work together to help refugees better integrate into the community and build relationships with their newest neighbors. Already partnerships within these sectors have worked together on similar projects such as the Refugee Housing Leadership Project, which is highlighted in the attached video, which brought together public safety officers, volunteers, and landlords together with refugees over several months to learn about housing in the US and become trained volunteer mentors for refugees in the future.
In general, refugees in Mankato are not fully integrated into the broader Mankato community. Refugees and non-refugees work together as neighbors to improve their community as a whole. In all of this, refugees and non-refugees build relationships with one another as well as with other community stake holders to improve the community as a whole.
Mankato Free Press, September 9, 2012: Coming up soon is perhaps their most ambitious endeavor. It’s called the Tapestry Project. It hopes to revamp a previous effort to help new immigrants get help finding housing, jobs or resources.
The group is looking for volunteers who can serve as “community connectors” for the six weekly installments of the program. The first session is 6-8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The Tapestry Project is a collaborative effort by Minnesota Council of Churches Refugee Services, Lloyd Management and the city of Mankato. The weekly meetings will focus on a new topic each night, such as housing, parenting, food safety, health, public safety, etc.
Minnesota also got a pair of Americorps Vista volunteers helping set up other programs to help match new immigrants with volunteers, and something called the Refugee Community Consortium, which looks to get community service providers and refugee community members together to discuss the issues that affect them.
“We’ve invited county departments, city departments, our local health services facilities, and other service providers and nonprofits to dialogue with us,” said Jessica O’Brien of Refugee Services.
The plan for the consortium is to set it up but then let the community take it over and mold it to whatever form best fits its needs, she said. That group has met twice. The last meeting attracted 50 people from various groups.
Minnesota Council of Churches Mankato Refugee Services says its goal is to do whatever it can to help immigrants and the communities in which they’ll live.
“I’m really excited,” O’Brien said. “I feel like there is strong city support extending a hand to our newcomer neighbors.”
Refugee Services opened in April and is housed at Bethel Baptist Church for now. In the future, it may move to a permanent location.
They’re still looking for volunteers. Anyone interested can call 345-1554.