All of us are inundated with the ever-changing status of our lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wake up, turn on the news, and try to keep up with information on the spread of the virus, all while trying to unpack the ins and outs of the CARES Act. It’s a lot for anyone to deal with.
Now imagine that you are in a new country, where you don’t have a full grasp of the language or an intuitive knowledge of your new home’s resources. Not ideal.
Luckily for immigrants and refugees in Toledo, US Together is working around the clock to help their clients with these particular challenges. We spoke to the organization’s program director, Corine Dehabey, about the nonprofit’s services and what people in the community can do to help.
Now you’re speaking my language
“The particular challenges during this time? I believe it’s the language,” says Dehabey, who leads a Facebook livestream in a group for US Together Toledo’s clients. “They didn’t understand the seriousness until it was explained in their own language, but now they are up to date. Then, of course, the challenge is losing their jobs.”
Toledo’s immigrant population is dealing with financial insecurity like so many others, which means filing for unemployment and food stamps are necessary steps to get by. Along with understanding the recommended health-related precautions to be taken during the crisis, doing paperwork for these resources is a language barrier issue unto itself.
Dehabey and other staff members are quite busy translating documents to the clients’ respective languages and helping them navigate the unemployment website.
“They didn’t know anything about [filing for] unemployment until I posted about it on their Facebook group, and then my phone was ringing off the hook,” she says.
(Social) distance learning
US Together offers ESL (English as a Second Language), financial literacy, and job readiness courses, all of which are currently being taught remotely by staff members and volunteers via Skype. There is also a women’s group and a men’s group that serve as support for openly communicating with the clients about their struggles and needs. This is also being done via Skype right now.
“We do different topics and we let the women ask the questions, so we can help them with their kids’ schooling and the issue of having the kids at home,” says Dehabey, who leads the women’s group.
The US Together Toledo office has four staff members at this time, so the organization could always use more volunteers to help with these online classes. They welcome experienced ESL instructors (no certification necessary) and are open to introducing new courses. Dehabey says it might be nice to have someone teach classes on how to alleviate anxiety, like breathing exercises, or maybe even classes related to parenting. Anyone who’d like to give back with their particular expertise should contact her.
Monetary donations are always welcome at ustogether.us, which also includes a COVID-19 resource page for ESL speakers. If you know someone who could use this support, refer them to the site. If you’d like to volunteer to teach online classes for US Together Toledo, contact Corine Dehabey at [email protected].
