The number of immigrants has strained local governments, workforce programs, social services agencies, schools, housing, healthcare and nonprofits trying to provide assistance. Driver training also has been cited as a need.
DeWine said a number of people from his team met with Springfield and Clark County officials last week, including Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, Clark County Commissioner Melanie Flax Wilt, health commissioner Chris Cook, Springfield City School District Superintendent Bob Hill and others.
“Really our purpose was to listen to them, hear what’s going on and look for ways that we could be helpful,” DeWine told the News-Sun. “We have a lot of follow-up things with different agencies, (and we’re going to) see if there’s different things where we might be able to be helpful ... It continues to be a work in progress as far as our office and looking for ways to be of help.”
Flax-Wilt said her takeaway from the meeting was DeWine and his administration have a “genuine interest” in helping the county through the “intense, unexpected influx of refugees to our community.”
“With the need for translation services and limited resources, it can take three times longer to process an application for a refugee, which slows down services for everyone we serve. This takes a toll on our employees as well,” Flax-Wilt said.
Dan Tierney, press secretary for DeWine’s office, said the meeting was an opportunity to meet with local officials to provide feedback on what might be needed and potential resources through three agencies.
Bureau of Motor Vehicles: Groups of people are working on efforts regarding driver safety and driver education to provide information and resources in Haitian Creole. This includes a video on how to get their driver’s license and the written knowledge test, as well as other things to help improve driving such as driving simulators. The traffic safety office works to hold seminars in coordination with the city of Springfield and the city school district, with St. Vincent de Paul holding two driver education seminars in December in Haitian Creole.
Department of Job and Family Services: This is the entity that handles resettlement assistance programs. The department went over with local officials on what resources were available through them, and officials soon hope to have more information available in Haitian Creole.
Department of Education and Workforce: The agency is working with the Springfield City School District to provide English learner technical assistance to help people are who learning English. They talked about what can be provided through the agency to local schools, making sure the schools are aware of resources that would be provided. This includes school-aged children and older English Language Learner students of all ages because sometimes schools will make programs available to people from ages 17 to 22 who are post-graduation/high school setting age and adult education programs.
Real-world experiences
Cook said they shared a variety of real-world experiences with DeWine, explaining what their strengths are as a community and what they are doing right. He said: “We asked for help in areas where there are opportunities to improve, and part of that is additional funding to support the infrastructure needed to serve those in need.”
Flax-Wilt said the county is appreciative of the state making additional funds available through DJFS because it “has been hit hard with up to 200 cases per day flooding our system.”
An important thing Cook mentioned during the meeting was Rocking Horse Community Health Center, the Mercy Health system and the health department are “absorbing” all of the additional healthcare work needed with the growing population.
“I explained that you cannot fully appreciate the impact of the rapid population growth in our community until you have seen people lining up at Rocking Horse Center at 4 a.m. just for a chance to become a new patient and receive medical care. That’s sobering,” Cook said. “Clark County is already a Health Professional Shortage Area and that adding thousands of new patients to a system that already doesn’t have enough medical providers is a no-win situation.”
He added: “While we all believe in our mission to provide high-quality medical care to everyone, the system is strained, and workers are getting tired. There is a real danger of burning out our workforce in the healthcare system.”
Cook said Haitian immigrants are not coming to them through a resettlement program that’s structured with resources and planned from entry to placement. He said: “Most social services are doing more with the same, not more with more.”
Language barriers
As for the schools, the district currently has 925 English Learners (EL) enrolled who are qualified for support services, with an expected enrollment of 1,100 by fall, according to Pamela Shay, director of federal programs.
The district has 1,607 students whose native language is not English, which includes the 925 EL students, as well as others who may have some English skills but the parents most often do not have English skills.
“With the trend of current summer enrollment and discussions of new families still arriving in Springfield, we are anticipating the EL enrollment to reach 1,500 students in need of EL services by fall of 2025 and over 2,000 non-native English students/parents by next year,” Shay said.
The district has 18 ESOL teachers, with the goal of them maintaining a caseload of about 50 to 60 students per teacher. However, with the increased number of students, some buildings exceed that number of students per teacher. Ideally, Shay said, they could use two to four additional teachers based on current enrollment, and would need an additional four to six ESOL teachers for next year.
“One area that has not been addressed is the Clark Early Childhood Center for our Pre-K students. With over 90 non-English speaking students, nearly 25% of the student population, we have not been able to assign ESOL teachers to that building,” Shay said. “The Pre-K program is not covered by state/federal funds except through special grants, and therefore the district does not provide ESOL coverage currently to the Pre-K program.”
The district faces significant challenges in several areas, Hill said, including language support, translation efforts, communication barriers, teacher shortages, transportation and housing, and legal assistance.
DeWine said there are many students who don’t speak English or it’s not their first language, and that kids are “pretty adaptable,” but there are still challenges.
“For any school district this would be a significant challenge, and they’re taking it on and working as hard as they can,” he said. “But language barriers and working through that, not just in school but for others, in whatever program we’re talking about — these are challenges.”
Vilès Dorsainvil, the president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, located at 1530 S. Yellow Springs St., said they are trying to implement workshop programs for the immigrants to educate them in their own language.
“Education that has to do with safety, language barrier, driving, cultural approach, how to manage their household and make sure that the environment is clean, and anything that can normally help them to better navigate the new environment that they are living in,” he said.
If the center can work with the city and county, which already has some resources, they can implement the project and get the funding to support it because they do not have any funding, Dorsainvil said.
“(We need) this type of project to keep it moving forward ... First we need funding, then we need to look for a facility (because we use a) church as a facility that hasn’t been implemented for this type of program. We need a place for full operations of the non-profit,” he said.
Dorsainvil added he did have a meeting with city leaders to figure out how they can work together, support each other and move forward with the new influx of Haitians.
“We are here just to help and make sure that we work with the city and the county and to try to help the newcomers, try to help them with a smooth transition from where they used to be to here where they live now in Clark County,” he said. “All we can do is make sure we work with them, listen to their concerns, learn from (them) and (they) learn from us, and make sure that we work together as a community to make everything better for everybody.”
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