Introduction

The Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies' Cultural Orientation Project is funded by the Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Washington, D.C. to train multi-cultural community teams in cross-cultural understanding and conflict resolution and mediation. The objectives of the training are to:

(1) Train teams of multi-ethnic cross-cultural interpreters from refugee and refugee serving groups in 5 cities to provide ongoing orientation and cultural understanding services to their communities

(2) Produce more successful and sensitive cultural orientation delivery through utilization of knowledge elicited from cross-cultural training

(3) Enable 5 communities to engage in specific orientation projects utilizing the skills of trained team members

(4) Provide ongoing technical assistance and support to trained teams

(5) Perform evaluation and feedback functions; and

(6) Develop a best practices service module for replication in additional communities.

The Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies (CPACS), in partnership with our subgrantee, Immigration and Refugee Services of America (IRSA), proposes to achieve the above objectives by extending a Cross-Cultural Community Orientation and Understanding Program to 5 additional sites with high concentrations of Iraqi and/or Bosnian refugees.

The fiscal year 1996 projects, not to be duplicated in the same city, are as follows:

• Atlanta, GA, Bridging the Gap Project, Inc. Working with students from Clarkston High School and staff from Bridging the Gap
• Buffalo, NY, International Institute of Buffalo. Working with adults from the refugee population, community representatives and IIB staff
• Pittsburgh, PA, Catholic Charities. Working with adults from the refugee population, community representatives and Catholic Charities staff
• San Diego, CA, Catholic Charities. Working with adults from the refugee population, community representatives and Catholic Charities staff
• San Francisco, CA, International Institute of San Francisco. Working with high school students their refugee parents, and staff of IISF.

Current project information is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.fresno.edu/dept/pacs/refugee.html .

The CPACS model involves training multi-cultural community teams in cross-cultural responsiveness and understanding, and assisting the trained local teams to utilize their new knowledge to inform and educate their respective ethnic and service communities. Five (5) sub-grants of up to $12,000 will be given for communities to design and operate projects utilizing the skills of team members in the areas of orientation service delivery and understanding. In this manner, the project will develop community responsiveness and skills to resolve cross-cultural and orientation issues in a self-sufficient manner. Teams to be trained in each community will be comprised of mainstream service providers, refugee service providers, community representatives and refugees.

Partner summaries are included in Attachment 1.

The project will occur in five phases:

Phase 1: Site Selection

Through an RFP process, CPACS and IRSA are soliciting proposals from local communities interested in participating in this project. Communities will be asked to identify:

a. Local orientation needs and deficiencies

b. Issues of cross-cultural misunderstanding among or within community ethnic groups

c. Proposed project design to address "a" and "b" above

d. Collaborative partners and involvement of refugees and multi-ethnic participants

e. Project end goals and measurable outcomes

Eligible applicants will be resettlement affiliates, and/or consortia of mainstream and refugee providers, or community groups working with refugees. Collaborative projects will receive top consideration and each community must identify a fiduciary agent.

Criteria for site selection will include the following:

a. Location of a significant number of newly-arriving Bosnian and Iraqi refugees

b. Sites with strong community collaborations and inclusion of the spectrum of relevant ethnic groups and refugees

c. Sites with reports of frequent and/or recurring incidents of cross-cultural conflict and misunderstanding

d. Sites with specific orientation delivery or methodology needs

e. Sites where roots of the conflict are localized and resolvable, and not due to centuries of ethnic hatred

f. Sites with a viable and feasible program plan

In consultation with ORR and national voluntary agencies, five (5) communities will be selected for this project.

Phase 2: Planning and Assessment

Once the communities are selected, a local assessment process will be conducted by key project facilitators of CPACS and IRSA in cooperation with site participants. The following activities will occur: on-site assessment; identification of team members; planning with team members; customized training design; review of training plan by team members.

Once community needs have been delineated, CPACS and IRSA will coordinate to assign expert facilitators. Three facilitators will go to each site. Facilitators will be chosen for expertise to address the local community's specific needs.

Phase 3: Training of Teams

Elicitive Cross-Cultural Training: In the 5 selected cities, CPACS will train teams of cultural interpreters and mediators. Team members will include: refugees, refugee service providers, mainstream service providers, and community representatives. Twenty to thirty participants will be trained simultaneously through a facilitated, "elicitive" process that has been designed by CPACS and successfully implemented worldwide by CPACS and others.

CPACS utilizes a method of cross-cultural training that is inclusive and elicitive in nature. Members of each cultural group attend the session together. Through a facilitator and a group process, they discuss and discover each others' cultural distinctives and then together create collaborative solutions which they, in turn, bring to their communities. Through this method, participants explore each others' cultures simultaneously - providing a radical immediacy not found in most cross-cultural training programs. The training is provided in English, and the sub-grantee must provide team members with adequate English skills or skilled simultaneous translation.

Orientation Implementation Training: By the end of the elicitive training, community members will have received valuable information about each others' cultures and behaviors. CPACS will then work with community teams on implementation strategies and assist in bridging the gap from knowledge to implementation. Ongoing consultation will be provided through IRSA, CPACS, and the CPACS Internet communications system.

Phase 4: Community Projects

Each community will then implement its plan of program activities, goals, and measurable outcomes. Awards of up to $12,000 will be given to communities to implement programs designed to reflect their needs and to utilize the skills of the trained mediators and cultural informants. Typical activities might include:

A format for regular meetings with newly arriving refugees and service providers, facilitated by team members, to discuss refugee expectations, needs, and fears to inform and improve cultural orientation services

Team members to conduct quarterly town meetings to educate the community-at-large about refugee cultures and the emotional experiences of resettlement

A team member to serve as mediator and liaison between newly arriving refugees and the school system

Team members to review existing orientation materials and presentation and make recommendations for cultural appropriateness and inclusion or exclusion of topics

Team members to develop and provide orientation materials to mainstream providers and/or community-at-large

Team members to provide ongoing facilitation of cross-cultural or intra-cultural conflict

While CPACS and IRSA will have a visible initial presence, projects will become increasingly self-sustaining as skills are utilized and developed. CPACS and IRSA will then move into a role of support and in-service skills enhancement to the ongoing projects.

Phase 5: Ongoing Consultation

CPACS and IRSA will provide ongoing consultation to participating sites through: telephonic consultation, one on-site in-service training, and electronic media including a website and listserve. A site on the World Wide Web (WWW) portion of the Internet allows posting of information which can be accessed at any time by a person with computer Internet access. This RFP and other information about the project is currently posted on the WWW at http://peace.fresno.edu/refugee.html . A listserve is an electronic mailing list of persons who communicate by electronic mail. Anyone sending e-mail to a listserve has it automatically distributed to all members of the listserve. This allows convenient instant communication with a large group.

Submission of proposals:

Submit three copies of your proposal on or before January 16, 1998 to:

Dr. Duane Ruth-Heffelbower

Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies

1717 S. Chestnut Avenue

Fresno, CA 93702

Telephone technical assistance in preparing proposals is available from Duane Ruth-Heffelbower 559-453-3418 during normal business hours. E-mail: duanerh@fresno.edu

Additionally, please answer (6-8 pages) the following questions:

1. Provide a brief summary of the particular inter-group conflict to be addressed through this project.

2. What is the nature and duration of the conflict?

3. What ethnic groups and how many would participate?

4. What mainstream groups and how many would participate in the training?

5. Describe the connectedness of proposed participants to the community at large, to each other, and to their own ethnic groups.

6. What outcomes would result from this project?

7. What activities would the local team be engaged in?

Attachment 1 - Partner summaries

The Center for Peacemaking and Conflict Studies (CPACS) of Fresno Pacific University is sponsored by the Mennonite Brethren Churches and participates in the Mennonite Conciliation Service. Activities of the Center include: operation of Mediation Associates, Victim Offender Reconciliation Program, Discipline that Restores for Schools, and providing M.A. and Certificate programs in Conflict Management and Peacemaking. Staff members of the Center have provided cross-cultural conflict mediation, domestically and overseas, in a variety of settings including: criminal justice, school systems, employment discrimination, racial discrimination, public welfare. The Center faculty has provided services in Russia, Bangladesh, Laos, Spain, Brazil, in addition to all parts of North America, and has worked with multi-ethnic populations representing each continent of the globe. For the purposes of this project, their experience with Russian, Muslim, Asian, and African populations will be particularly pertinent. CPACS will take the lead in delivering cross-cultural conflict mediation training and providing technical assistance in cross-cultural understanding.

Immigration and Refugee Services of America (IRSA) has been assisting displaced persons for over 79 years. Through its 35 Partner Agencies, IRSA has assisted refugees and immigrants from throughout the world through programs in resettlement, orientation, mental health, English as a Second Language, citizenship, employment, and immigration legal services. IRSA brings first-hand knowledge of the refugee resettlement process and provision of orientation services. On staff, IRSA has individuals who wrote, edited, and delivered orientation curricula at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center for US-bound Southeast Asian refugees and has written and delivered orientation curriculum for US-bound Iraqi refugees in Saudi Arabia. In addition, IRSA has on staff an individual trained in adult learning methodology, a linkage with Columbia University Teachers University, and experience designing and implementing cross cultural orientation and life skills training programs for adult learners. Thus, IRSA brings first-hand experience of both the overseas and domestic aspects of orientation provision along with expertise in adult learning curriculum design and implementation.

Page constructed and maintained by Duane Ruth-Heffelbower Last update 10/21/97.

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