SouthEast Asian Refugee Community Home

Currently within the State of Minnesota, the growth of new immigrant/refugee populations is outpacing the Federal resources that are available to assist in building a new life in Minnesota. Lack of available long term support is also contributing to economic, education, and healthcare disadvantages within Minnesota’s refugee populations. If someone does not address these disadvantages the direct consequence will be an expansion of new racial inequality within our State. Organizations such as SEARCH seek to narrow the gap in equality by focusing on providing families with sustainable income. However, we cannot close this gap alone and truly need sustained effort from someone like you.

Of the immigrants and refugees in the Twin Cities area, SEARCH works most often with Somali, Burmese/Karen, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, and Bhutanese clients. Challenges working with immigrant/refugees who just enter the United States are numerous. Barriers to employment that SEARCH’s clients regularly identify are: Insufficient command of the English language, failure to meet the minimum educational requirements for Twin City’s area job postings, limited access to reliable transportation, and lingering untreated physical and mental health issues. Matching a job that meets the needs of an individual client is an uphill battle and SEARCH is constantly looking for ways to improve the prospects of the people we serve.

SEARCH has recently begun a capital building campaign to expand our supportive services to address gaps in education, job skill, and language proficiency. However, the landscape of modern society is one of rapid change. For some, an almost inaccessible job market frustratingly gets pushed farther out of reach faster than skills can be acquired. Most of SEARCH’s current sources of funding do not allow for expenditures on direct skill training so this is another area in which we need sustained effort from individual donors.

Investments in workforce readiness are critical in preparing low-skilled immigrants and refugees for jobs. Once they’re ready, sufficient job placement resources also must be available to help facilitate relationships between job seekers and employers. For many immigrants/refugees, full integration has been slowed by the barriers they experience. SEARCH’s comprehensive blend of employment training and job placement services fills systemic gaps in equality for those in need of a helping hand.