From Mutual Assistance Association to Resettlement Agency
The Pan African Community Association (PACA) in Milwaukee has successfully evolved from an all-volunteer group formed in the 1990s to a professional resettlement agency, hoping to be a part of the solution to declining African refugee resettlement. Exceeding expectations in their first year, PACA resettled more than 70 refugees from Africa and Asia in 2010.
PACA’s Beginning:
PACA started as a volunteer group in 1998, advising local communities on the needs of refugees being resettled in the Milwaukee area. In response to the growing number of African refugees, several African community leaders had come together to give a panel discussion on the history of Africa and why refugees were coming to the United States. This informal group quickly became a valuable source of information for the Milwaukee community. Between 1999 and 2002, the group increased mainstream cultural competence on African refugees, and, on many occasions, also provided direct assistance or referred individual refugees and immigrants to proper resources.
Professionalization:
This all began to change in 2002, when the outcome of a resource fair that brought together the African refugee and immigrant communities in the area suggested that there was a gap of an organized entity to serve the growing African community. This suggestion, combined with an influx of Somali Bantu and a dearth of knowledge about their culture, led to a formal request for the African volunteer group to become an official 501(c)(3) organization. It took two more years for the volunteer group to officially become the Pan-African Community Association. In the meantime PACA began developing bylaws, strategic planning, and building programs. Some of its earliest programs were: Coalition of African Youth (CAY), a youth leadership program, and African Women Entrepreneurship (AWE), an initiative, helping African immigrant and refugee women develop entrepreneurial skills. The AWE initiative received initial grants from the local Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Then, in 2006, PACA received an Ethnic Community Self-Help grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which enabled them to open an office and hire their first three employees, including an outreach provider, a bookkeeper and their first Executive Director, Mr. Fessahaye Mebrahtu. The grant also enabled them to start new programs and enhance CAY, the youth leadership program. Since 2006, they have also been receiving ORR funds through the state of Wisconsin to provide supportive services to refugees.
Becoming a resettlement agency:
PACA did not stop there. In 2008-2009, the organization applied to the US State Department to be a resettlement agency. In the three years prior to their application submission, PACA had seen a decline in the number of African refugees being resettled. According to the observation of PACA Executive Director, Mr. Mebrahtu, less than 50% of African refugees were being resettled, and he speculated that a large contributing factor was the lack of sponsorships. While there are several factors underlying this troubling trend, including insecurity, PACA decided they could be a part of the solution by becoming a resettlement agency, and increasing sponsorship for African refugees in the Milwaukee area, as well as in the United States in general. On their second attempt, they were accepted by the U.S. State Department, and resettled 69 refugees in fiscal year 2010, exceeding their allocation by 15%. They have already resettled 25 people in the 2010-2011cycle, which started October 1, 2010; if this trend continues, they expect to once more surpass their allocation. The capacity building PACA undertook through ORR’s Ethnic Community Self-Help grant was critical to getting them to the point where they could become a resettlement agency. The organization has now built a staff of over ten people who speak over 17 languages including Burmese, Karen, Swahili, Somali, Tigrinya, Amharic and French. PACA is now in its second phase of Ethnic Community Self-Help funding, focusing on building solid programs to support resettlement, including helping emerging ECBOs to organize and build capacity. Mr. Mebrahtu says the addition of the resettlement program at PACA has been a lot of work, but very rewarding. It has been a success, considering many of the refugees are securing jobs – including 10 job placements in one week alone last November. PACA is happy to be seeing a very positive trend. Mr. Mebrahtu says for the most part the greater Milwaukee community has been accepting of the organization’s role resettling refugees, and that they are complimenting the work of other agencies.
PACA’s asset-based approach:
Some within the community ask if PACA is bringing a greater burden to the area by increasing refugee resettlement there. Mr. Mebrahtu argues that the refugees infuse a new energy into the economy, and that PACA’s particular approach builds on refugees’ strengths, helping them contribute to overall community development . PACA utilizes an ‘asset-based’ approach, rather than the old ‘deficit-based’ approach to resettlement, which had aimed at eliciting support from the mainstream community. PACA’s approach does not deny the needs and barriers refugees face, but helps empower them with self-confidence. They help refugees to integrate, find a job and generate their own economic resources. PACA also focuses on small gestures that have a lasting effect on the community. These include providing refugees with an ethnic-specific hot meal when they arrive to show a solid sign of welcome, resettling refugees in safe and accessible areas, connecting them with an existing ethnic/national community, and linking them to a religious association if necessary. Through efforts such as these, PACA ensures successful refugee integration, as well as continued success for their own nascent refugee resettlement program.
