Causes: Ethnic & Immigrant Centers, Human Services, Immigration

Mission: The refugee and immigrant center at the asian association of utah (ric-aau) was founded in 1977 and is a private, non-profit, community-based organization located in salt lake city. Originally established to support asian immigrants and refugees in their transition to life in the united states, the organization has expanded its resources and services over the past 37 years to assist refugees and immigrants from around the world. Today, we serve over 2,000 refugees, immigrants, and other community members each year. With over 60 staff members, our backgrounds cover 17 countries and over 30 languages. We are devoted to helping clients become more self-sufficient in their daily lives, and aim to reduce the barriers that refugees and immigrants face when adapting to life in the u. S. With the help of staff, volunteers, and community leaders, we are continually developing and expanding our services to meet the needs of our clients. We offer comprehensive services in one physical location, re

Programs: See schedule o refugee employment & social services the employment program assist utah's refugees overcome the challenges of unemployment and underemployment and move forward on the path towards self-sufficiency and integration. Ric-aau's job developers, refugees themselves, provide intensive employment case management services, job skills education, and career planning; taking into consideration each client's culture, needs, education, past employment experience and skills, and potential barriers. The program has 3 funding streams, each with its own target population and implementation with the same overall goal of assisting refugees find and maintain employment. Targeted assistance grant (tag) : the tag program focuses on providing support for refugee work-readiness through job search preparation, skills-building and case management to assist in overcoming employment barriers and other situations that may jeopardize employment. The program also includes a significant refugee community organization capacity building component, partnering with three key refugee communities (congolese, somali, and sudanese) to provide training, monitoring and mentoring so they can serve their own communities in the future. Work readiness english as a second language (wresl): wresl provides a six month intensive curriculum for newly arrived refugees, focused on developing work readiness skills to help them attain the skills needed to find and retain long-term employment. Preference is given to pre-literate refugees who are single parents with one or more dependent children or to refugees in a two parent household with one or more dependent children where one parent has a physical or mental incapacity. Payroll grant: through a collaborative partnership with department of workforce services (dws) and lds church, refugees are placed either at the humanitarian center or deseret industries manufacturing. Refugees who participate in this program are scheduled for an eight hour work day, which consists of four hours of hands on work and four hours of classroom education. The lds church pays for the four hours of work and dws pays for the four hours of education. Fy 2017 accomplishments: the organization matched refugees with 300 job placements, 87% which were full-time placements. Average hourly wage of all placements was 10, which exceeds utah's minimum wage by nearly 3.Partnered with over 180 employers to help refugees secure employment social services social services provides comprehensive, wrap-around case management services to second migration refugees, asylees, special immigrant visa (siv) and parolee clients who resettle in utah. Case managers provide assistance with: health and mental health care, legal matters, public transportation, safe and affordable housing, school enrollment, and other critical matters. Each step of the way, we emphasize teaching clients how to access resources and navigate systems themselves, empowering them to become more self-sufficient. Our case managers are refugees themselves and bring 23 different languages to serve our refugee clients. The case management team is culturally aware of the barriers facing refugees and provide the best services possible to meet the needs of our clients. The social services program is funded by the department of workforce services and the utah health policy project. Extended case management (ecm): the ecm program provides case management services for refugees, aslyees, sivs, and parolees up to 24 months of their arrival to the u. S. The purpose is to bridge the gap between refugees and the resources necessary for integration in the u. S. Temporary assistance for needy families grant - family preservation (tanf- fp) the purpose of this program is to serve refugees that are tanf eligible (must have children under the age of 18 and meet income requirements) and have exceeded their two year ecm program. There is no time limit for their arrival in the united states. These cases are not long term but have significant problems and/or crisis that need to be addressed and resolved. This program continues to grow because many refugees seek additional help as their cases exit the two year program. Affordable care act (aca) navigator: our affordable care act navigator connects refugees and immigrants with health coverage through the marketplace, including completing eligibility and enrollment forms. Fy 2017 accomplishments: provided a clear path to integration for 1,310 refugees this year.

see schedule o community wellness the community wellness program is a multi-disciplinary team that consist of a psychiatrist, advanced practice registered nurse (aprn), licensed clinical social workers (lcsw), certified social workers (csw), certified mental health counselors (cmhc) and targeted case managers. The program provides evidence-based treatment services to refugees and immigrants experiencing behavioral health issues. The clinical team has decades of experience treating the refugee and immigrant population through individual/group psychotherapy, medication management and targeted case management services. The program's goals are to not only decrease client's psychiatric symptoms but to restore a client's previous functioning level prior to their behavioral health issue. The program provides an array of clinical services that includes: mental health treatment, substance use disorder services, psycho-tropic medication management, domestic violence treatment services and targeted case management to refugees and immigrants. All services are conducting in the client's preferred language with our bi-lingual team or interpreters are used to ensure language barriers are bridged. Community wellness program leverages many different funding streams to ensure comprehensive clinical services are available for our target population. The program is an optum medicaid provider for salt lake county residence, a salt lake county substance use disorder provider for adults and adolescents, a provider for mental health and substance use disorder treatment services for department workforce services, a domestic violence provider to perpetrators and victims for the department of child and family services and a provider for mental health services to refugees who are "uninsured" through the utah department of health are some of the diverse funding streams utilized within the program. Fy 2017 accomplishments: - provided clinical services to over 600 unduplicated clients - conducted over 5,800 hours of clinical services--821 hours of psychiatric evaluations, 1,925 hours of individual/group psychotherapy, and 608 hours of medication management, 2,545 hours of case management services. - from current case load, random sampling of 1/3 of caseload of rhs-15 scores indicated 57% of clients reported reduced psychiatric symptoms, 38% reported an increase in their psychiatric symptoms while 5% reported no change in their symptoms. - client who reported a decrease in their rhs-15 scores reported an average of 31% decrease in their rhs-15 scores while clients who reported an increased in symptoms have an average of 23% increase in their rhs-15 scores. - completed yearly audits with salt lake county, optum and utah health department without major concerns. - awarded funding from lds church to provide clinical services to uninsured clients. - engaged refugee communities and stakeholders regarding behavioral health services offered by the program. Increased program visibility to hospitals and clinics throughout salt lake city. - billing department received over 95% approval of medicaid billing. - open dialogue with weber health services to be a provider of mental health services for refugees who are being resettled in ogden area. Interpreting and translation: the interpreting & translation program is a fee-for-service program that contracts with over 100 interpreters with over 50 languages that provides vital services to the refugee and immigrant population in the greater salt lake area. Our interpreters provide services throughout the valley for hospitals, health and mental health clinics, school districts, and state and federal agencies. Additionally, interpreters provide document translation. Ric-aau is licensed to teach the "bridging the gap" training course to agency contracted interpreters to guarantee the highest quality of interpreting services available. Fy 2017 accomplishments: - provided over 3,000 interpreting services per month - became certified to teach "bridging the gap" within the agency - 85% of requested appointments are covered

see schedule o trafficking in persons (tip) program the trafficking in persons (tip) program provides comprehensive victim services to victims of human trafficking. With funding from multiple federal grants, we are able to serve all victims of both sex and labor trafficking-regardless of age, gender, and immigration status. Ric-aau's team of 3 dedicated case managers carry trafficking-specific caseloads, serving as the backbone of support and service coordination as victims recover from the trauma of trafficking, navigate complex systems, and work toward whole and healthy lives. In addition to providing many services in-house, we rely on strong community partnerships and referral networks to connect clients with the services that will be the best fit, in the right geographic area, with staff who have been trained in trafficking. Fy 2017 accomplishments: - provided services to more than 89 trafficking survivors.

see schedule o english as a second language (esl) & life skills ric-aau empowers refugees and immigrants through three level english language classes which are tailored to their needs. Classes are held at our downtown office our sunnyvale neighborhood center and at village north apartment complex. Classes are free for refugees and low-cost for immigrants, range from non-literate to intermediate level, and offered year-round. Ric-aau's instructors are state board certified and tesol certified. The program also provides digital literacy training, utilizing gently used computers that have been donated to the program. Fy 2017 accomplishments: 192 students attended english classes sunnyvale neighborhood center the sunnyvale neighborhood center is located in a refugee and immigrant dense neighborhood that has been historically under-resourced. By locating the center within walking distance of residents' homes, critical community services become easily accessible. The sunnyvale neighborhood center allows residents to leverage ric-aau's programs, such as esl, community wellness, employment, social services, and youth and family services. As of 2016, ric-aau provides the early learning program for children who have parents attending the esl program at our sunnyvale neighborhood center location. As many refugee children face a gap in school readiness, the program prepares children to enter school by teaching them literacy skills, recognition of shapes and numbers, and appropriate social skills. Fy 2017 accomplishments: served over 500 adults and 80 youth youth and family services the organization provides a holistic approach for refugee and immigrant youth and their parents as they adjust to new systems in the u. S. The organizations youth and family program provides parenting classes, afterschool programs, leadership development, and youth case management. After school programs: provides social skills building, academic assistance and leadership opportunities. Four afterschool programs are provided: leaders and counselor in training (lcit), evergreen jr high afterschool program, sunnyvale elementary afterschool program and sunnyvale teen afterschool program. In total, during the 2016-17 fiscal year, the youth and family afterschool programs have served over 100 youth totaling over 3,100 hours of direct service to 300+ youth.