Submitted Photo The Jamestown community is continuing to support local migrant families as they relocate to the city and navigate various challenges. Pictured is a representative from Journey’s End’s legal consult team during a recent Journey’s End legal consult day.

The community is continuing to support local migrant families that have relocated to the Jamestown region in search of asylum.

The Rev. Luke Fodor from St. Luke’s Episcopal Church said that the church, which has been leading migrant efforts, has been working with roughly eight to 10 migrant families on a regular basis. While he acknowledged that the migrant families arrived in the community with material needs, he said the families the church has been working with regularly have been most in need of case management.

As The Post-Journal previously reported, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church has been partnering with two particular migrant families that have been preparing food at St. Luke’s in exchange for a donation that helps the families pay for rent and other expenses. Fodor said the program is continuing at St. Luke’s and will become “a little bit bigger” throughout the summer season.

Linnea Haskin, who is Jamestown Public Market’s director and is helping oversee the church’s efforts to help migrant families in Jamestown, described the church’s relationship with the migrant families as a “sponsorship.”

“The church is kind of having more of an intimate relationship with two families, but we are in connection with and doing what we can for the other families that we meet, and we continue to meet more families,” she said. “We met a few more last week that have been in the area for a while but hadn’t really made any connection to Social Services or community-based programs, so that’s exciting to get to continue to meet new neighbors in the community.”

Haskin told The Post-Journal that one of the migrant families the church is working “very closely with” is going to be starting a “vendor business” through St. Luke’s. The family will be preparing food that will be sold at the Jamestown Public Market each Saturday. The proceeds from the food will contribute to St. Luke’s migrant support fund that helps assist migrant families with various material needs such as food, rent, school supplies for the children and other necessities.

St. Luke’s also has a support fund to help migrants in the Jamestown community, which can be found online (https://bit.ly/migrantsupportfund).

“The kids want to start doing more social community activities, and all of those things cost money, so we’re looking for unique ways to support them,” she said. “They’re very excited to get to be a part of the community in a different way and meet people every Saturday, share their culture, share their food and learn English. They’re very excited to continue to learn English by interacting with the community and just have fun with it, so we’re very excited for that.”

In an effort to help migrant families learn the English language, Fodor said the church has been hosting a “loose and informal” ESL class after church each Sunday. He explained that the informal format is used to help migrants who are “incredibly stressed” trying to navigate the different challenges of relocating to a new community.

In addition to the ESL classes at St. Luke’s, Fodor said a couple of community agencies from Buffalo have come to Jamestown to help the migrants with services. Fodor said the legal team from Journey’s End sent a consulting team to help migrant families understand their legal rights, as well as learn how to walk through the various steps of their legal proceedings.

“All of the folks that are here are in the country legally,” Fodor said. “They’ve come seeking asylum, and they are in the process of doing the paperwork to declare that and kind of go through the next steps of going through those legal proceedings.”

Fodor explained that local attorneys have volunteered their time to help the migrant families navigate the legal process. He added that representatives from United Healthcare have assisted migrants with medical insurance and with the various concerns of migrant families.

Another challenge Fodor and Haskin discussed was helping community members be “curious” of cultures that are different from their own. Haskin explained that the church is encouraging people to “think outside” of conventional thought processes and try to be understanding of every member of the community.

“The more we get to know each other the easier it gets,” Fodor said. “A lot of people in Chautauqua County have lived here their whole lives and maybe they haven’t traveled the whole wide world… Being curious is the key thing, how do we learn from one another and realize that we’re part of one global family.”

Currently, Fodor said the church is at the point where it needs to “formalize” some of the processes involved in helping local migrant families. He explained that those involved in helping the migrant families have been “learning a lot,” conducting assessments and finding out what the migrant families need in Jamestown. Fodor indicated that it is now time to transition to dedicated case management for migrant families.

Over the next few weeks, Fodor said the church is hoping to announce the creation of a paid case manager position that will help oversee the various concerns of migrant families and help “better map them out” in the Jamestown community.

According to Fodor, the most pressing need right now for migrant families is to be able to work legally in the community, which he said has been a very difficult process.

“I know the Governor has been trying to investigate what the steps are for New York state to kind of declare a different kind of status for these individuals because they want to work,” he said. “They are some of the hardest working people.”

Haskin added that there are jobs in Jamestown that migrant families would be eligible for if they were legally allowed to work in the United States. She said many of the individuals have “amazing skill sets and backgrounds,” while others are “very highly educated.” Haskin said that each of the individuals have “unique talents and skills” that could be a valuable asset to the local community.

“It is different on a case-by-case basis, but largely, individuals have to wait up to six months to a year before they get the legal work permits, and that poses a challenge for them but also puts a strain on our economy that could be easily changed,” she said.

Fodor said that based on the conversations the church has had with government officials, community leaders and various organizations, everyone appears to be “on the same page” regarding the need to provide better access for the migrants to enter the workforce in the local community as soon as possible.

Asked how effective the other services for migrants have been, Fodor explained that migrant families are “really not eligible for anything.” Haskin explained that many migrant families are not eligible for public assistance programs, such as SNAP benefits or public cash assistance.

“Everyone that we’ve been working with has been really understanding, but they can only do what they can do in the confines of bureaucracy,” she said.

Another issue facing many of the migrant families is that a significant portion of the families are lacking proper documentation to be eligible for employment opportunities and services.

“If you’re traveling through the jungle and across the river to get here to escape threats to your life, you really don’t think, ‘Maybe I should bring my birth certificate,’ or things that you might need,” Haskin said. “A lot of them brought those items, but they were lost, either confiscated by immigration, stolen or lost in the Rio Grande. It’s, horrible kind of these situation that we’ve heard from families across the country that are migrants and coming here, and so it’s been a challenge, but we’re getting through it.”

Despite the challenges, Haskin said multiple organizations have been working hard to help migrant families obtain basic services. According to Haskin, The Chautauqua Center has helped connect families with essential medical services, the health department has worked to get vaccines for migrant families and the Department of Motor Vehicles has helped migrants receive driver’s licenses.

“They all have been very understanding and working with us as best they can,” she said.

Haskin told The Post-Journal that the challenges facing migrant families are not unique to the Jamestown region or to the state. Instead, she indicated the problems facing migrants are evident throughout the country due to various policies and procedures.

“They are very unique circumstances that these families find themselves in, and we really need to do more as a society to support them as we do with many minority groups,” she said. “The more we can ask questions and be understanding about that process, the more helpful it will be.”