Eyes on Refugees. General Information. PO Box 378 Carlisle, MA (617) Jennifer Silversone

Transcription

1 Eyes on Refugees General Information PO Box 378 Carlisle, MA (67) Website Organization Contact Jennifer Silversone Year of Incorporation 26

2 Statements & Search Criteria Mission Statement The Mission of Eyes on Refugees is to maintain the dignity to those humans fleeing war and persecution while helping them get to a safe refuge. We pledge to help one family at a time. Save One. Save a Generation. Background Statement Our organization has previously completed successful projects to assist refugees in the Dunkirk Communal Zones. These four zones each provide safe refuge for women and children on one side. In partnership with Aid Box Convoy (ABC), a U.K.-based NGO, twice a week our volunteers delivered clothing to these areas for the women to shop for clothes. A communal kitchen areas were established in the region with equipment received in-kind. There have been fifteen torpedo stoves dispersed throughout Dunkirk communal kitchens to help people avoid using propane in their tents. Eyes On Refugees also currently owns two mobile medical units. One is overseen and staffed by volunteers under the watchful eye of Dr. Hassan Chaudrhy. This unit is currently serving the Paris area where asylum seekers are sleeping rough on the streets. The second is waiting to be shipped to Greece where we have a group of volunteers waiting for its arrival. These two mobile units will serve the two largest camps in Greece, where we have obtained the permission of the Greek authorities to serve in these closed government-run camps. We are currently providing safe housing for two fragile families in Greece, who we support in conjunction with a Greek orthodox church in Thessoliniki. We provide support for another family in Holland that we were able to reunite after they had been separated for three months. We currently have fifteen children safe-housed right outside of Calais, France. Locally, Eyes On Refugees has partnered with other local resettlement agencies to actively facilitate the resettlement of refugees, asylees, certified victims of human trafficking, and Cuban/Haitian entrants in Massachusetts, and providing a broad spectrum of support services designed with self-sufficiency as the goal. Through these efforts, we are helping refugees that are in horrific situations in the greater Boston area. We focus on one family at a time and see them through to total independence. The first family we supported were self-sufficient within three months with intensive ESL and comprehensive social and civic support. Our second family, a family of seven, recently came to us from Syria by way of Zataari camp in Jordan, which was tragic for them. After finally making it to the U.S. they found themselves housed in inhumane conditions. Fortunately, we have removed them from their awful living conditions to a temporary apartment which is dignified, but small, until we can find a more permanent solution. 2

3 Impact Statement Eyes on Refugees is a small organization, but a force. In partnership with local resettlement agencies, we provide a broad spectrum of culturally and linguistically appropriate social services to ensure the wellbeing of Boston-area refugee families, including housing, counseling, ESOL classes, education, vocational training, job placement, and comprehensive case management to ensure appropriate referrals to other necessary services. In addition, we provide civic engagement assistance and cultural education in order to assist our clients in assimilating into the local community. During 27 we aspire to purchase a small multi-family housing facility, at which we can deliver our proven residential service model to four to six families at a time, supporting them to achieve self-sustainability. The goal of our service model is to ensure independence of the families served within four to six months of residency at our facility. Families will then be transitioned to safe and healthy permanent housing and begin participation in follow-up household management programming. By the end of their period of residency, clients will: Have knowledge of public transportation systems or will have received their driver license; Have secured employment that is specific to their skill set; Receive ongoing ELL teaching; Know how to access healthcare and psychological resources; Understand how to budget and pay bills; and Become interwoven into the fabric of our communities. Needs Statement We are in need of funding and volunteer support to accomplish our capacity building initiatives in the coming year:. During 28 we aspire to purchase a small multi-family housing facility, at which we can deliver our proven residential service model to four to six families at a time, supporting them to achieve self-sustainability. 2. In addition, we intend to establish a local distribution center through which we provide distribution of necessary items to those in need, with dignity. At this location, we will allow refugees, immigrants, and other low income people to purchase necessary items using a voucher system. 3. Eyes on Refugees also needs to undertake database development to effectively track program inputs and outcomes. We also require funding to support the continued operations of our foreign programming, including: 4. Operation of two mobile medical units, in France and Greece. 5. Provision of safe housing for fragile families in Greece. CEO/Executive Director Statement We live by the motto, "Save one, Save a generation." At Eyes on Refugees, we are working toward sustainable solutions to ensure basic needs for displaced people fleeing war and persecution, around the world. Service Categories International Migration, Refugee Issues Geographic Areas Served Please review online profile for full list of selected areas served. 3

4 Programs Boston Area Refugee Assistance Description Eyes on Refugees operates a suite of programs intended to provide holistic service to under-resourced refugees and immigrants, % of which who qualify as low/moderate income. These innovative programs, offered within a culturally competent environment, cultivate the comprehensive wellbeing of our target population, while enhancing their socioeconomic status. Persons eligible for services have been lawfully admitted to the United States on humanitarian grounds, often following conflict, displacement or persecution in their country of origin. Refugees and immigrants new to the U.S. are subject to a stressful and difficult resettlement process. They cope with numerous issues simultaneously: adjusting to a new government and culture, learning English, obtaining employment, as well as handling a myriad of immediate daily life issues including securing quality, safe and affordable housing, educational services, child care, and health care. Eyes on Refugees has therefore developed a program model that focuses on serving a small number of families at a time, offering them a comprehensive residential program with supportive services to assist these individuals in identifying and meeting their most basic and pressing needs. Comprehensive case management is at the core of our housing program. To this end, we provide the families in our care with ongoing counseling and support, ESOL classes, vocational rehabilitation and placements, and referral services intended to meet the holistic needs of each family member. Budget Category Human Services, General/Other Population Served Immigrant, Newcomers, Refugees,, Program Short Term Success Upon presentation to our organization for assistance, clients undergo an initial intake process through which our staff will assess and counsel program participants to help identify priority needs and establish individualized service plans to overcome barriers that are preventing each individual from meeting these needs, such as limited English proficiency or knowledge of the job market. We will also perform a thorough skills evaluation to ensure appropriate employment matching. Potential clients will be assessed to understand their family dynamic, as well as to assess their level of motivation, psychosocial state, and eagerness to gain independence. 4

5 Program Long term Success Program Success Monitored By Examples of Program Success Based on the above statistics, it is clear that the majority of recent immigrants and refugees in Greater Boston are low-income, living in working class neighborhoods, and lacking sufficient English language skills to keep up with social demands. Currently, there are several multi-service, for-profit organizations and legal offices in Dorchester that offer citizenship and civic education services, which include preparing and filing documentation and advocacy, at a cost too burdensome for most to meet. Eyes on Refugees envisions addressing the aforementioned trends through the provision of comprehensive, culturally competent resettlement services to meet the broad needs of the immigrant and refugee population in our community. Staff Locally, Eyes On Refugees has partnered with other local resettlement agencies to actively facilitate the resettlement of refugees, asylees, certified victims of human trafficking, and Cuban/Haitian entrants in Massachusetts, and providing a broad spectrum of support services designed with self-sufficiency as the goal. Through these efforts, we are helping refugees that are in horrific situations in the greater Boston area. We focus on one family at a time and see them through to total independence. The first family we supported were self-sufficient within three months with intensive ESL and comprehensive social and civic support. Our second family, a family of seven, recently came to us from Syria by way of Zataari camp in Jordan, which was tragic for them. After finally making it to the U.S. they found themselves housed in inhumane conditions. Fortunately, we have removed them from their awful living conditions to a temporary apartment which is dignified, but small, until we can find a more permanent solution. 5

6 Management CEO/Executive Director Executive Director Ms. Jennifer Silverstone Term Start Dec 25 Staff Information Full Time Staff Part Time Staff Volunteers Contractors Retention Rate % Staff Demographics - Ethnicity African American/Black Asian American/Pacific Islander Caucasian Hispanic/Latino Native American/American Indian Other Staff Demographics - Gender Male Female Unspecified Formal Evaluations CEO Formal Evaluation CEO/Executive Formal Evaluation Frequency Senior Management Formal Evaluation Senior Management Formal Evaluation Frequency nmanagement Formal Evaluation n Management Formal Evaluation Frequency Yes Annually N/A N/A Plans & Policies 6

7 Organization has a Fundraising Plan? Organization has a Strategic Plan? Years Strategic Plan Considers Does your organization have a Business Continuity of Operations Plan? Management Succession Plan? Organization Policy and Procedures ndiscrimination Policy Whistleblower Policy Document Destruction Policy Directors and Officers Insurance Policy Is your organization licensed by the Government? Permit? N/A Under Development Yes 7

8 Board & Governance Board Chair Board Chair Ms. Jennifer Silverstone Company Affiliation ne Term Dec 25 to Board Members Name Affiliation Status Esam Al Abassy Community Volunteer Voting Dr. Hassan Chaudrhy Community Volunteer Voting Michael Garron Community Volunteer Voting Gabrielle Lakis Community Volunteer Voting Katherine McPherson Community Volunteer Voting Ms. Jennifer Silverstone Community Volunteer Voting Joshua Silverstone Community Volunteer Voting Board Demographics - Ethnicity African American/Black Asian American/Pacific Islander Caucasian Hispanic/Latino Native American/American Indian Other Board Demographics - Gender Male Female Unspecified Board Information Board Term Lengths Board Term Limits Number of Full Board Meetings Annually Board Meeting Attendance % Written Board Selection Criteria? % 8

9 Written Conflict of Interest Policy? Percentage Making Monetary Contributions Percentage Making In-Kind Contributions Constituency Includes Client Representation Under Development % % 9

10 Impact Goals Our overarching goal is to increase the quality of life and improve long term wellbeing for recent immigrants and refugees residing in the Greater Boston area. This is accomplished by: Improving the delivery of social services to refugee families. Fostering economic growth by reducing isolation from resources. Strengthening social stability by increasing language capabilities and civic engagement. Specifically, our anticipated objectives include: Goal: Via culturally and linguistically appropriate social services, to help refugees access resources that are essential to survival. Build refugees socioeconomic stability, and help them become more integrated into the broader community fabric. Objective : Conduct counseling and case management, and provide referrals to help refugees access various entitlement programs, become gainfully employed, and secure permanent housing. Objective : Expand our comprehensive residential program s ability to assist and educate refugees to become self-sufficient and obtain their citizenship. Goal: Increase the number of recent immigrants and refugees becoming productive and contributing U.S citizens, advocating and sharing their voice, through civic assistance and engagement activities. Objective : Expand participation in ESOL classes for children and adults to ensure assimilation academically, professionally, and personally. Objective 2: Provide employment skill matching services to an increased number of clients. Objective 3: Educate refugees on how to become lawful permanent residents and to ultimately obtain their citizenship. Goal: Build the capacity of Eyes on Refugees as a premier refugee serving organization. Objective : Demonstrate increased competence and effectiveness in governance, through identification of gaps in knowledge and through active board and Executive Director development efforts. Objective 2: Improve the organizations administrative functioning, making improvements in our IT infrastructure, enhancing client data storage and research capabilities, and development of advanced program evaluation methodology.

11 Strategies Eyes on Refugees has developed a program model that focuses on serving a small number of families at a time, offering them a comprehensive residential program with supportive services to assist these individuals in identifying and meeting their most basic and pressing needs. Comprehensive case management is at the core of our housing program. To this end, we provide the families in our care with ongoing counseling and support, ESOL classes, vocational rehabilitation and placements, and referral services intended to meet the holistic needs of each family member. Upon presentation to our organization for assistance, clients undergo an initial intake process through which our staff will assess and counsel program participants to help identify priority needs and establish individualized service plans to overcome barriers that are preventing each individual from meeting these needs, such as limited English proficiency or knowledge of the job market. We will also perform a thorough skills evaluation to ensure appropriate employment matching. Potential clients will be assessed to understand their family dynamic, as well as to assess their level of motivation, psychosocial state, and eagerness to gain independence. We initially focus on the provision of assistance to ensure each client accesses the various entitlement programs for which they qualify, such as SNAP, TANF, and SSI, to maximize resources available for the health of the family. We will then evaluate gaps in the client s other resources, and identify their particular areas of deficit. Upon completion of such evaluation, we strive to connect each client with the resources necessary. To this end, Eyes on Refugees will: Effect referrals and case management to help program participants access English language classes, vocational training or higher education and support enrollments in the respective services to promote knowledge and skills that improve self-sufficiency, self-advocacy and employment opportunities; Provide ESOL instruction to increase English language skills and improve survival and employment skills; Assess and refer program participants to health or mental health services to improve health and ability to participate in and contribute to the life of the community; Coordinate referrals to agencies providing services to the disabled to support participants special needs and integration in the life of the community, if necessary; and Initiate referrals to child care resources that enables parents to pursue education, training or employment. The goal of our service model is to ensure independence of the families served within four to six months of residency at our facility. Families will then be transitioned to safe and healthy permanent housing. Having established residency for six months in our facility, residents will have created a positive rental history, and Eyes on Refugees will be positioned to act as a reference to assist each client in securing long term housing. Further, we will provide ongoing follow-up services for a period of six months following their transition, to ensure that clients possess the living skills needed to effectively manage their new household. By the end of their period of residency, clients will: Have knowledge of public transportation systems or will have received their driver license; Have secured employment that is specific to their skill set; Receive ongoing ELL teaching; Know how to access healthcare and psychological resources; Understand how to budget and pay bills; and Become interwoven into the fabric of our communities.

12 Capabilities Our organization has previously completed successful projects to assist refugees in the Dunkirk Communal Zones. These four zones each provide safe refuge for women and children on one side. In partnership with Aid Box Convoy (ABC), a U.K.-based NGO, twice a week our volunteers delivered clothing to these areas for the women to shop for clothes. A communal kitchen areas were established in the region with equipment received in-kind. There have been fifteen torpedo stoves dispersed throughout Dunkirk communal kitchens to help people avoid using propane in their tents. Eyes On Refugees also currently owns two mobile medical units. One is overseen and staffed by volunteers under the watchful eye of Dr. Hassan Chaudrhy. This unit is currently serving the Paris area where asylum seekers are sleeping rough on the streets. The second is waiting to be shipped to Greece where we have a group of volunteers waiting for its arrival, along with a food truck. These two mobile units will serve the two largest camps in Greece, where we have obtained the permission of the Greek authorities to serve in these closed government-run camps. We are currently providing safe housing for two fragile families in Greece, who we support in conjunction with a Greek orthodox church in Thessoliniki. We provide support for another family in Holland that we were able to reunite after they had been separated for three months. We also currently have fifteen children safe-housed right outside of Calais, France. Locally, Eyes On Refugees has partnered with other local resettlement agencies to actively facilitate the resettlement of refugees, asylees, certified victims of human trafficking, and Cuban/Haitian entrants in Massachusetts, and providing a broad spectrum of support services designed with self-sufficiency as the goal. Through these efforts, we are helping refugees that are in horrific situations in the greater Boston area. We focus on one family at a time and see them through to total independence. The first family we supported were self-sufficient within three months with intensive ESL and comprehensive social and civic support. Our second family, a family of seven, recently came to us from Syria by way of Zataari camp in Jordan, which was tragic for them. After finally making it to the U.S. they found themselves housed in inhumane conditions. Fortunately, we have removed them from their awful living conditions to a temporary apartment which is dignified, but small, until we can find a more permanent solution. Indicators We realize the importance of being an outcome-based organization and thus focus heavily on producing sustainable results for those we serve. Evaluation of program effectiveness and efficiency is a continuous process. Ongoing assessments are made to guarantee appropriate spending, management, organization, and preparation. Regularly scheduled board meetings are mandatory to oversee all operations and to ensure that goals and objectives are being achieved in accordance with planned milestones. The effectiveness of our programming is determined by assessing the impact of our programs on participants, using a number of criteria to evaluate their progress in academic, social, and economic areas. Eyes on Refugees will conduct both quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the program activities to document and measure the outcomes listed. The quantitative evaluations involve a comparison of proposed service levels against the actual service levels, as well as an analysis of client characteristics to ensure that the target population has been served. The data collection and client tracking system documents the outcomes. We will evaluate the success of the organization as a whole in terms of the number of individuals who engage in our efforts, as compared to the number that achieve their goals of acquiring affordable housing and/or being granted citizenship. Each program activity will also have its own evaluation measures. Further, we plan to invite ongoing feedback from all members of our constituency. As we grow, we will make efforts to evaluate more long-term outcomes of our work. These include measuring the long term self-sustainability of people who have received housing services, civic engagement assistance, and ESOL education. Capacity building initiatives are expected to result in the development of more advanced program evaluation measures. 2

13 Progress Based on the number of individuals served by our programs in 26, we have identified a need to engage in efforts to increase organizational capacity. To this end, we aspire to increase our capital assets while also undertaking projects to improve our administrative functioning, such as making improvements in our IT infrastructure, enhancing data storage and research capabilities, and development of advanced program evaluation methodology. Despite our past efforts, our organization remains in dire need of additional resources to adequately respond to the refugee community s needs. We have thus made it an integral component of our current strategic plan to obtain a small housing facility, with four to six units, through which we can provide housing for local homeless refugee families as they move through our proven holistic service model to achieve selfsustainability and assimilation. 3

14 Financials Fiscal Year Fiscal Year Start Jan, 28 Fiscal Year End Dec 3, 28 Projected Revenue $5,. Projected Expenses $5,. Endowment? Credit Line? Reserve Fund? Months Reserve Fund Covers Detailed Financials Revenue and Expenses Fiscal Year Total Revenue $58, Total Expenses $49, Revenue Sources Fiscal Year Foundation and Corporation Contributions Government Contributions $ $ $ Federal -- State -- Local -- Unspecified -- Individual Contributions $52, Indirect Public Support Earned Revenue Investment Income, Net of Losses Membership Dues Special Events $6, Revenue In-Kind Other

15 Expense Allocation Fiscal Year Program Expense $35, Administration Expense $7, Fundraising Expense $6, Payments to Affiliates Total Revenue/Total Expenses Program Expense/Total Expenses 72% Fundraising Expense/Contributed Revenue % Assets and Liabilities Fiscal Year Total Assets $7, Current Assets $7, Long-Term Liabilities Current Liabilities $8, Total Net Assets $9, Short Term Solvency Fiscal Year Current Ratio: Current Assets/Current Liabilities Long Term Solvency Fiscal Year Long-Term Liabilities/Total Assets % Top Funding Sources Fiscal Year Top Funding Source & Dollar Amount Second Highest Funding Source & Dollar Amount Third Highest Funding Source & Dollar Amount Capital Campaign Currently in a Capital Campaign? Yes Campaign Purpose We aspire to purchase a small multi-family housing facility, at which we can deliver our proven residential service model to four to six families at a time, supporting them to achieve selfsustainability Goal $75. Dates June 27 to June 29 Amount Raised To Date as of Aug 27 Capital Campaign Anticipated in Next 5 Years? Comments Foundation Staff Comments This organization is newer and received its nonprofit status from the IRS in 26, as such, one full year of financial data, per the IRS Form 99, is posted above. Created Copyright 29 The Boston Foundation 5