Reaching out to refugees
New mentoring program helps refugees feel at home

Katie Colleran | staff editor
kcolleran@smcvt.edu

As part of the St. Michael's College Little Brother/Little Sister program, sophomore Meredith Astles had practiced mentoring. Wanting to form an outreach group for refugees in the area, she stuck with what she knew.

Refugee Mentoring is Astles’ idea realized. The program will be run like Little Brother/Little Sister, but with a focus on reaching out to local refugee children and their families.

Meredith Astles thought up the Refugee Mentoring Program. Larry Frisoli, photo

Starting small
Astles recruited sophomore Julia Berberan to be a fellow coordinator of the program, and the two started working at the end of last spring to pull the program together.

“I automatically went to MOVE for help,” Astles says. “I thought that is where the program would fit best.”

There were some complications to sort out, such as finding families to participate and recruiting dedicated volunteers, she says.

“It would have been really easy to give up on it, but we knew it would really benefit a lot of families,” Astles says. “Our biggest fear was that we would stray off in a direction that wasn’t intended.”

After sorting out all of the details, the girls went to Nancy Devost, a teacher at
John F. Kennedy (JFK) Elementary School in Winooski, to find families. Because the
program is new and Astles wanted it to run smoothly its first year, they are currently only working with three families, she says. All of the families came to Vermont from Africa.

Among the families, there are 10 children, ages 6-15. Volunteers with Refugee Mentoring will work with the children and build relationships with the parents as well, Astles says.  

“This is not just to focus on the children, but also on the parents,” she says. “My goal, if you will, is that by working with the families we can help to establish them in American culture and help them form bonds with each other.”

Astles, Berberan and their five volunteers met with the families for the first time this past Thursday, Sept. 27. The St. Michael's group went to JFK, introduced themselves to the parents, and played with the kids. Future meetings with the families will be held about once a month while the volunteers will spend time each week with the children, Astles says. For those meetings, the volunteers will have a chance to bring the children to campus to spend time with them.

“By the time we left, the kids were hugging us and it was adorable,” she says. “We tried to get across to the parents that we are here for them too, and they were very sweet.”

Addressing a need
In the October issue of the Winooski School District News! it was reported that 22 languages are spoken by the school district's 234 students.  Working as an English Language Learner (ELL) teacher, Devost works one-on-one with refugee children who come to school not speaking English.

When Devost was contacted about the Refugee Mentoring program, she helped by selecting families she thought would get the most benefit from it, she says.

The refugee children participating in the program all attend Winooski schools, including John F. Kennedy Elementary. Larry Frisoli, photo

“We talked about what we thought would be a successful program,” Devost says. “It’s kind of unknown territory for everyone, but I’m optimistic.”

After the first meeting, Devost saw one of the children who had spent time with the volunteers and he couldn’t wait until the next meeting, she says.

“The kids are really looking forward to it,” Devost says. “The families have open minds, but I think the parents are also a little apprehensive.”

She says that some of the uncertainty may be because the parents are having a hard time understanding the program at this point and may need some time to get used to it.

Devost has seen how difficult it is for families to adjust to a new life in the United States and hopes this program will help with the transition, she says.

“Two of the families have been here almost four years and still have so much to learn about the culture,” Devost says. “The first few years you spend adjusting and just trying to cope.”

There will continue to be a need for the program in the future because new refugee families continue to move into the area, she says.

If Astles’ program works the way she hopes, the families they aid will soon be able to help each other, Astles says.

“I grew up in a tight-knit community where I could go to the neighbors for anything,” Astles says. “That’s what I want for the families. I want them to feel comfortable and welcome here.”

Making the connection
Sophomore Emily Wright is one of the Refugee Mentoring volunteers. She went with the group to meet the refugee families last Thursday. Wright wanted to get involved with this program because of research she did on the refugee situation in Sierra Leone, she says.

Refugee Mentoring is the newest MOVE program. Larry Frisoli, photo

“Its kind of inconceivable for the U.S. to think of what these people have been through and not alienate them,” Wright says. “We just need to be sensitive to other people’s backgrounds.”

The kids had a great time with the volunteers, warming up to them and cracking jokes, though it was a little harder connecting with the parents because of language barriers, she says. But, everyone seemed really happy when their time together was over.

“I think it’s really nice to try to integrate those who are having trouble with the culture and they seem to appreciate us,” Wright says.

Based on the first meeting, Astles continues to be optimistic about reaching out to the refugee population.

“I really want for it to work out,” she says. “I want them to feel comfortable here. I want to make them feel welcome.”