Pedagogy

Community based organizations known as CBOs play a vital role in the success of many under represented and under funded minority groups. One such minority group is made up of Asian and Pacific Islander refugees. According to the 2000 US census, nearly 15 million single Race Asian and Pacific Islanders reside in Los Angeles, Orange or San Diego counties. Of those, approximately 400,000 are either first refugee or native born children of refugees. Nearly half of all Asian and Pacific Islander refugees live in Southern California. This population goes largely unseen by people outside of these counties. For this reason CBOs have formed to assist these refugee populations settle into their new homes, schools and jobs.

The largest CBO dedicated to the assistance of Asian and Pacific Islander refugees is the Refugee Forum. The Refugee Forum excels at providing services in the local community by remaining flexible to the needs of the people it serves. This CBO not only provides assistance to students but also offers various workshops for educators and other stakeholders. Their work of helping students reach teachers and teachers reach students allows both sides of the education process to feel supported. The program has a good reputation in dealing with social injustices within the communities and even beyond. It does this by effectively supporting the successful programs that the schools already have in place, and by getting intimately involved with schools whose programs are either not set up or is failing to meet the needs of its studentsThe San Diego Refugee ForumThe Refugee Forum is a community based organization whose goal is to assist members of the Asian refugee community to be successful in their new homes. The Forum offers educational needs as well as limited employment assistance. It is made up of a network of local churches established almost twenty years ago to assist refugees from Asia and in Southern California. The Forum employs approximately fourteen permanent staff members and usually coordinates a large number of volunteers who share the same language with the refugees. The volunteers work hand in hand with various schools in three districts.

According to Beine, Fullerton and Palinkas (1995), the main reason to create such partnerships is to help all youngsters succeed in school and in later life. The Refugee Forum gives mentoring and lectures in the local language to immigrants originating from Asian countries. The program services almost 2000 students through the twelfth grade. It also assists refugee students to correctly identify, arrange secondary and tertiary education. According to Jacoby (1996), reports provided by the Refugee Forum showed that the refugee students from the three districts who do not actively participate in these programs had nearly a 60 dropout rate.This CBO not only provides help to students but also offers workshops for educators. Their work of helping students reach teachers and teachers reach students allows both sides of the education process to feel supported. Also according to Palmer (2000), in a caring school, the community work is to continually enhance the nature and the effects of partnerships. The forum produces literature for parents and teachers letting parents know how to assist their childrens schools. This approach is what was meant by no single school can create all the required conditions that young people need to survive  (SDCHSA, 2006). Along with educational services the staff has a network of businesses that provide employment opportunities for adult refugees. In this way the Refugee Forum provide assistance to the entire family. The Refugee Forum has a good reputation of addressing social injustices within the local school districts. It does this by effectively supporting the successful programs that the schools already have in place, and by getting intimately involved with schools whose programs are either not set up or is failing to meet the needs of its students. The periodic gap in service capacity which is usually found at various schools is most likely due to the fluctuation of the refugee population. Often public schools will be flooded with a particular language minority as several families relocate into a new neighborhood. The difficulties associated with this sudden change in the school population can be extremely hard to overcome for school staff and administration. This type of situation is where the Refugee Forums years of experience and hard working staff truly make a difference. The ongoing system of funding is another important issue in this forum. According to the forum director, the initial funding was not a problem. The real challenge is maintaining the excellent reputation of the Refugee Forum to ensure funding for the years to come. A large portion of the forums operating funds come from the United States Department of Education and the United Way. The State of California funds a portion of the health education program and the rest comes from various local government programs. Many of the volunteers at the refugee forum are American Corps workers. The periods of time when no grants are available the Refugee Forum relies on community partners to maintain their financial stability. My attendance at a Refugee Forum meeting showed that they have competent and very committed staff, program leaders and administrators. The meeting was attended by a variety of representatives from schools and other CBO partners. The members of the Refugee Forum showed a broad knowledge of their programs and their clients needs. From the material being covered it was obvious that the staff interacts with their clients on a daily basis and therefore contributing to the success of the forum. The defining attribute of CBOschools partnerships forum is programmatic and structural flexibility  (Zachary, 2000, p.23).

This is different to how the schools are used to operating. The program is free to acquire new partners and new programs as well as the flexibility to respond adequately to newly emerging refugee needs and also involves taking advantage of all new chances and opportunities. For the past years the forum has been focusing on immigrants and refugee from one part of the world. To meet their needs they hire qualified speakers of their languages. During visits to the forum, the staff said that for the time being they are trying to respond to various request proposals that could bring new of capacity and new funding.In conclusion, visiting the Community Based Organization Refugee Forum put me well outside of my normal sphere associates. The knowledge I gained from seeing the needs of an entirely new group of people has opened my eyes. My education classes have focused almost exclusively on the language issues that need to be addressed for our Hispanic and African American students.

Understanding the source of my students difficulties will help me as a teacher deal with potentially overlooked obstacles. I am hopeful that this type of grass roots organization will continue to grow and develop. Due to burdens of legislation and government oversight, the only groups that can effect change rapidly are these small under funded CBOs. Through the dedication and hard work of the people that staff these organization a whole generation of refugees will be able to build a better life for themselves in our country free from the persecutions they faced in their native lands.