Ethnic Self-Help Project

Lincoln is among the largest resettlement sites per capita in the country. A collaborative of ethnic community organizations and other health and human services organizations gathered in 2006 to create a vision:

For refugee families in Lincoln , Lancaster County , NE to achieve self-sufficiency and social and civic integration into their new country and new communities.

To achieve the vision, collaborators are working to develop robust, internal self-help networks within and between four cultural communities: Asian, African, Middle Eastern and Eastern European. The networks will create expertise within communities to share information about availability of appropriate services. This new three-year project will:

1. help the refugee communities to work together to share and learn about developing vibrant ethnic communities together;
2. assist each refugee family in achieving self-sufficiency and social and civic integration into their new country and new community; and,
3. assist Lincoln 's mainstream community in becoming better equipped to work with refugees.

The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center will be responsible for assessing the impact of the project toward reaching these goals. The primary emphases of the implementation assessment will be:

1. What has been the experience of the refugee community leaders? Refugee community leaders play a pivotal role in the project. They serve as the boundary spanner between mainstream resources and their refugee community; serve as opinion leaders within their community; participate in community-building and collaborative processes with leaders from other refuge communities; and will develop the Plan for implementing information and referral within their communities. The actual process of developing refugee community leaders will be documented to provide knowledge that may be generalized and used by others wishing to implement similar project. Key steps in achieving successful leaders will be identified. Lessons learned from the implementation process will be reported in terms of the factors, conditions, and circumstances that influence the effectiveness of the implementation process.

2. What has been the impact on refugee community members? The interpersonal networks and other activities established through the refugee community leader process will directly impact the experience of each community's members. An assessment of the impact on community member will be focused on the extent to which refugees are equipped with appropriate health and human services information and referrals, and the extent to which they are able to navigate the services system.

3. What has been the impact on mainstream community members? As the ethnic communities become more robust, we expect increased opportunities with the mainstream community. The degree to which the project contributes the provision of culturally and linguistically-competent services will be assessed.

The project is made possible through a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement.