by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
When Emily Krunic passed a note to David Ruchinski on Sept. 11, letting him know that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center, the English teacher, like most people, didn’t think much of it. But after the second plane hit and reports came trickling in that terrorists from the mid-East were responsible, suddenly his audience — a room full of Afghan girls wearing traditional Islamic veils and other refugees from places like Bosnia — took on an urgent face.
“My first thought was that we’ve got to get everybody together and make sure we’re vigilant in how we protect these kids,” said Ruchinski, program coordinator for New Beginnings, the child development initiative inside the refugee services arm of Lutheran Social Services. “I was so thankful that there were no serious instances of retaliation against Islamic people in Jacksonville.”
Lutheran Social Services, like Catholic Charities and World Relief, has what Ruchinski affectionately calls “clearing houses” for refugees all over the world who are escaping political persecution from the governments of their home countries. It is through these organizations, for example, that a single mom on the run from Afghanistan to Pakistan, after seeing her husband shot by the Taliban, makes the trip to the U.S.
Once they arrive, they become part of a Florida program called Refugee Resettlement, which receives federal funds and is responsible for assimilating people into American culture, finding them housing, jobs, getting their children into school and helping them learn to speak English. For young refugees new to Jacksonville, that job falls on New Beginnings.
“It was interesting,” said Ruchinski. “The Afghan kids weren’t really worried about how Americans would view them after Sept. 11. They thought that everyone would understand that they were here because they were fleeing the Taliban. But the Bosnians were different. They looked at it like, ‘This is how it begins.’ First, buildings get blown up. Then, neighbors start to turn on each other. Then, the ethnic cleansing starts. They were terrified of the loss of security that they thought they had finally discarded.”
But it is helping to clarify and deal with these kinds of cultural issues that lie at the heart of what Ruchinski and his team at New Beginnings are tying to accomplish. They mediate the cultural and linguistic transition from a young refugee’s home country into public schools and hopefully, a normal life in the United States.
According to Renee Sares, the program’s cultural adjustment and conflict resolution specialist, before New Beginnings, the dropout rate for refugees was very high, truancy was a big problem and less than a quarter of the students were graduating from high school.
“What Lutheran was seeing was that kids would get placed into schools right away without any period of adjustment,” said Sares. “Of course they were failing.”
That’s when Russell Bloom, the director of refugee services, and Kathleen McKenzie, the director of educational services, decided to write a grant for a program that would become New Beginnings.
“I had been working in the gender equity field for the University of Central Florida and I was talking to Russell [Bloom] about writing a grant for women refugees,” said McKenzie. “And he said, ‘How about kids instead.’”
They started a summer camp and hired Ruchinski to teach EASL — English as a second language. Some money came from the state, through the Department of Children and Families, and from Medicaid. The Jacksonville Jaguars and Prudential contributed, totaling about $500,000 for youth services.
They hired Sares, and before that Emily Krunic, another cultural adjustment specialist, and now have seven school liaisons facilitating programs at Wolfson, Englewood and other high schools and elementary schools around the city. They also employ translators.
“This program helps build their confidence level,” said Sares, who has a background in health education. “When they leave here, they have a stronger connection with the community, they have better communication skills and they have a core of friends with whom they can enter a new school without feeling isolated.”
“About three years ago, Jacksonville had more refugees than any other city in the country per capita,” said Ruchinski, noting that because Jacksonville fits the mold for affordable, mid-range cities where refugees can more easily assimilate, we are known internationally as a Bosnian hub.
“At the Educational Community Credit Union on St. Augustine Road, the tellers speak Bosnian and all the forms are in English and Czech,” he said. “Across the street at Albertson’s, there are Bosnians bagging groceries. It’s like Little Sarajevo.”
The Sarajevo Bar and Grill, he said, recently opened on Beach Boulevard.
But since Sept. 11 there has been a severe drop in the number of refugees coming into the U.S. One reason is that the situation in Afghanistan has actually improved. “One of the determiners in accepting refugees is, ‘Do they have a home to go back to?’” said Ruchinski. “And now that we have, in effect, gotten rid of the Taliban, they do.” This is contrary to the situation in Bosnia where Serbians took over Bosnian villages without any real resolution.
One initiative they have undertaken to combat the decrease in refugees is to rework the program to be able to receive asylees — those who seek political asylum — as well. As opposed to refugees, who are approved for refugee status in their home country, they have no official status when they come here, so they go through a period when they aren’t eligible for any services at all. “This is the deal with a lot of the Colombians,” said Ruchinski. “And South Americans in general.”
Most go to Miami first but if Lutheran has its way, they will consider Jacksonville. Bloom actually goes to Miami and tries to recruit refugees to move here. According to Ruchinski, their philosophical mission is to improve the lives of refugees, something that they think can happen in Jacksonville easier than in Miami. “Bloom does radio spots and organizes advertising campaigns to get refugees to move here,” said Ruchinski.
Currently, young refugees only come to Jacksonville accompanied by a guardian, or to meet one who is already here. There are situations in the U.S. where children come to the U.S. and are immediately placed in foster care. Ruchinski said Florida is thinking about starting a program to resettle unaccompanied minors, who are often the victim of the drug trade or were once sold as prostitutes.
“I’m kind of leery,” said Ruchinski. “It would mean a whole new range of services that, right now, we are not equipped to deal with.”
Class at New Beginnings starts at 9 a.m. That’s when Dr. Ruchinski, who has a Ph.D from the University of North Florida and has taught at Bishop Kenny and Episcopal high schools, teaches the refugees English. The rest of the morning is spent in cultural adjustment class. Art class is once a week. And every week, Ruchinski receives a new arrival list, telling him which children — and from where — will be joining his classes.
Krunic, as a cultural adjustment specialist, is teaching the children about feelings. In a meager classroom on Philips Highway, standing in front of maps of the world on one wall and a giant mural of Afghanistan that cascades into Bosnia on the other, she asks, “What kind of things make you sad?” She then asks about when they feel shy, tired, jealous or guilty. Ruchinski said they work on vocabulary at the same time they talk about cultural and emotional issues.
Ruchinski said one of his goals for the future is to better coordinate the different classes to achieve the same goals, so that if some clients will be working soon, that they are learning work-related vocabulary.
“This is hands down the best teaching experience of my life,” said Ruchinski. “In any normal situation, your relationship with your students is mitigated through the institution. Here, you actually get to know your kids on a personal level and get to watch them evolve socially as well as academically.”
In addition to teaching, Ruchinski and the other faculty members also serve as drivers to take the children home after school. Meals on Wheels provides lunch.
At any given time, there are about 20 refugees who attend classes at Lutheran, which also offers educational services for adults as well as a food bank, care for people with AIDS and a payee program, which helps people with their finances. Ruchinski also likes the fact that he was part of the team that started this program from scratch.
Generally, the way the system works is that Lutheran is supposed to be able to transition the children into public schools in about 90 days. However, every case is different and depending on when they arrive in the academic cycle, they may need more time. Currently, Lutheran has children from Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, Peru, Bosnia, Croatia, Sudan, Ethiopia and the Ukraine.
When asked what the future held for New Beginnings and the youth services division of Lutheran, Ruchinski said that in this business there’s a natural ebb and flow.
“But what I am sure about is that the way our world is, I doubt that we’re ever going to run out of customers.”