“What’s most important to us is that we weave ourselves into the patchwork of services that are already existing and that we add value to that,” Stieritz said.
The facility will likely be called the Springfield Empowerment Center and will potentially “take the load off of” some organizations’ plates.
It will have three staff members on the ground — two case managers and one immigration legal advocate, who has already been hired.
Stieritz said the team will help connect clients to English learning classes for employment, employment training, resume preparation, application assistance and job development. He said they will also assist with asylum, visas, status, citizenship and other humanitarian immigration relief.
Members of the organization in Cincinnati will provide support for many of the immigration services.
Stieritz said he expects to help more than 100 people with immigration-related assistance, and more than 200 with case management.
“It all really depends honestly on the intensity of the services that are demanded,” he said.
Johnson Salomon, patient advocate and interpreter at Rocking Horse Community Health Center, said during the meeting that the greatest need is for immigration services. Several organizations also provide assistance related to jobs.
Stieritz said immigration legal services are “low bono,” meaning that there is a fee scale based on need. He said fees will be waived in many cases in which a client does not have the means to pay but still requires assistance.
Catholic Charities is prepared to provide legal representation for clients for immigration cases like asylum, the CEO said.
“I do think it’s important to just make sure once we start a service that we’re not duplicating what’s already taking place for the community, so I think a lot of just making sure that we fully understand the network of what is offered so that we can add value in that,” Stieritz said.
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