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This project is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as part of the

Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009.

Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act

(CHIPRA)

Best Practices and Lessons Learned:

Refugee and Entrant Outreach Project

Jennifer Carvalho-Salemi, MPH

Project Coordinator

Florida Covering Kids and Families

The Lawton & Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies at the University of South Florida

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Refugee & Entrant Outreach Project

The Refugee and Entrant Project aims to increase Florida KidCare outreach and retention efforts to underserved refugee families by providing direct support and technical assistance to refugee serving agencies.

These agencies serve the nearly 30,000 refugees, asylees, parolees, entrants, and victims of trafficking that enter Florida each year.

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The project’s outreach efforts focus on the SunCoast region & includes: Hillsborough, Pinellas, Sarasota, Lee, & Collier counties,

This region receives the 2nd largest contingent of refugees in Florida

Approximately 2900 refugees last year, 30% (870) of them children.

In addition to refugees from Cuba and Haiti, this region welcomes resettled families from many other areas, such as Burma, Bolivia, Bhutan, and Iraq.

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Targeted Populations

Refugees

Asylees

Cuban and Haitian entrants

Iraqi & Afghan Special Immigrants

Children Victims of Human Trafficking

Other eligible, non-citizen families

◦ Permanent Residents for at least 5 years

◦ Children paroled for > 1year

◦ Citizen children of immigrant parents

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Refugee Families

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Guidelines for Best Practices

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Refugee & Entrant Outreach Project

Best Practices

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Common Simplification Efforts

1. Elimination of face-to-face

interviews

2. On-line applications

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Citizen documentation

requirements add a whole new

layer to the complexity of the

application process.

½ of non-citizen applications are

denied in this region of Florida

specifically.

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Online application assistance

specific to refugees, asylees,

parolees, entrants, and victims of

trafficking.

Provide ongoing follow-up and

support to refugee applicants and

the agencies that serve them.

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Simplification specific to refugee

families.

Community-based Outreach

Establish partnerships between local

refugee service agencies, community

partners, and state organizations.

Increase the number of refugee-

serving community partners

participating in Florida KidCare

outreach and application assistance.

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Community-based Outreach

Partnering with trusted, well-

established refugee service

agencies has been essential to

effectively reaching our target

community and ensuring the

credibility of our outreach efforts.

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Community Partners

Refugee Service Agencies

• Resettlement Agencies

• Lutheran Services

• Catholic Charities

• GulfCoast Jewish Family Services

• Refugee Task Force, Tampa Bay & Collier

• DCF Refugee Services

Educational

• Schools & School Districts

• Pinellas County Schools ESOL Advisory Council

• Hillsborough County Schools Literacy & Acculturation Center

Child Care

• Community Coordinated Child Care Agencies

• Child Care Associations

• LSF Child Care Food Program

• United Hispanic Child Care Providers Association, Tampa

Health Care & University Outreach Partners

• Moffitt Program for Outreach Wellness Education

• USF Health

• USF Health Service Corp

• USF Global Health Student Association

Public Agencies

• Public Libraries

• Health Departments

• Sheriffs Depts.

Community Coalitions & Faith-based Partners

• Local Church Groups

• Mission 52

• United Methodist- Church on the Move

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GOAL: Improve capacity of community

partners to assist parents in applying for

Florida KidCare.

◦ Encourage agencies to distribute Florida

KidCare educational information to the

refugee families that they serve.

◦ Conduct staff trainings on immigration and

refugee issues relating to Florida KidCare.

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Engaging Community Partners

To date, over 30 refugee-serving

agencies have partnered with the

Refugee and Entrant Outreach

Project to provide ongoing refugee-

centered outreach, support, and

assistance in the form of materials

distribution, application assistance

outreach, and staff training.

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Engaging Community Partners

Establish permanent, on-going

application assistance sites

Encourage community partners to

conduct their own outreach

activities or to incorporate FKC

outreach in their current activities.

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Engaging Community Partners:

Sustainability Efforts

Lutheran Services Florida & Catholic Charities

◦ Florida KidCare bilingual educational materials are being introduced at bi-monthly refugee resettlement orientation workshops (bilingual) that reach approximately 10-20 refugee families per month.

◦ Florida KidCare referral cards were introduced in the waiting-area for parents to request application assistance.

◦ Florida KidCare bilingual educational brochures are being included in ongoing LSF Refugee Resettlement and Placement (R&P) mailings to resettled families in Hillsborough County (approximately 20 per month).

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Community Partners’ Activities

United Hispanic Child Care Providers Association ◦ Distributed materials to member childcare providers

to redistribute to parent clients.

◦ Organized presentation on Florida KidCare for over 30 bilingual-child care providers in the Tampa area.

Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Collier County Schools ◦ 3 School District ESOL programs have agreed to

distribute educational materials and application assistance announcements to teachers and parents at a variety of local school and community sites.

◦ Refugee & Entrant Outreach included in PCS Bilingual Assistants Training.

◦ ESOL Parent Informational workshops and events of over 100 attendees.

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Community Partners’ Activities

As of May 2010

Staff of every major refugee-serving agency throughout the five-county region have participated in a Refugee & Entrant Outreach Project workshop on Florida KidCare outreach strategies and application support for non-citizen families.

Ongoing application assistance sites were established at six refugee-serving agencies, a public library, and a local business serving predominantly Burmese clients.

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Engaging Partners - Outcomes

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By definition, resettlement agencies

focus on assisting newly-arrived

refugee families with relocation.

Consequently, the vast majority of

assistance provided by resettlement

agencies is funded only for the first

8-12 months post-arrival.

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Refugee Resettlement & Florida

KidCare Outreach

During this time, qualified refugee families

will be assisted in receiving monetary and

medical assistance (RCA & RMA) and/or

TANF and Medicaid, depending on their

eligibility under existing federal and state

assistance programs.

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As families become self-sufficient and

transition from assistance benefits to the

workforce, their contact with

resettlement agencies lessens.

The majority of refugee families cease

contact with these agencies once their

resettlement and employment needs have

been met.

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Major Challenge

This situation was an initial

challenge for the Refugee and

Entrant Project, which anticipated

making contact with most eligible

families by way of referral from

resettlement agencies.

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Major Challenge

Responses to Challenge 1. Modification of FKC referral process

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Collaborated with refugee agencies to identify and target families who had been in the United States for more than eight months, even if they were no longer in contact with their resettlement agency. ◦ Letters to “closed cases”

◦ Workshops to parents while still enrolled in services

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LSF also began to include Florida

KidCare brochures in their

monthly mailings to families whose

Resettlement and Placement

Assistance has ended.

Catholic Charities will begin

automatic referral of “closed

parent cases”.

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Responses to Challenge 2. Expanded outreach

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Expanded outreach to community

partners that provide services to

refugees already resettled

◦ i.e. child care providers, ESOL and

ABE instructors, and refugee youth

and family programs.

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Expanded Outreach

Collaborating with Tallahassee offices to coordinate specific mailings to denied, but potentially eligible, non-citizen applicants within this 5-county region.

Letters are:

◦ Bilingual

◦ Alert parents to current status and chance to re-apply

◦ Identify local application assistance sites and contact information of community agency.

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Work-in-progress

Thank You!

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Jennifer Carvalho Salemi, Refugee & Entrant Outreach Coordinator

Florida Covering Kids & Families

jcarvalh@health.usf.edu

Marianna Tutwiler, Program Director

Lawton & Rhea Chiles Center, Tallahassee, Florida

mtutwile@health.usf.edu

Jodi Ray, Project Director

Florida Covering Kids & Families

jray@health.usf.edu