Hard Work is Heart Work

My name is Lauren Weinhold. I’m the Chief External Affairs Officer at Jewish Vocational Service (JVS).

JVS was founded in 1949. After WWII, members of the Jewish community in Kansas City rallied support and welcomed Holocaust survivors and other globally displaced persons. The primary focus at that time was on vocational integration. Hence our name, Jewish Vocational Service. 2024 is actually our 75th anniversary. So we’ve been doing this work for 75 years, and we continue to rally support for and welcome individuals in search of safety, security, and a better life who are fleeing war, persecution, or trauma in their countries of origin.

JVS is the largest resettlement organization in Kansas City. It is all of what we do here. We have the infrastructure and the staffing available to welcome the most refugees and immigrants in Kansas City but certainly, we work very closely with other organizations and will share information, resources, etc. There’s no competition in this work, because there are plenty of individuals to welcome.

I say all the time that this is hard work, but it is heart work. And you can’t do this work if you don’t eat, breathe and sleep it. Anybody who does this work for five seconds gets bitten by the bug. I can’t imagine being anyplace else and doing anything else now. And I’m really proud to be a Kansas Citian in this moment, because the city of Kansas City and the Kent City Chamber of Commerce are seeking accreditation to become an official Welcoming City. Mayor Quinton Lucas has formed the Mayor’s Commission for New Americans. JVS has a seat at that table. So we will be at the ground level, working to build policy and infrastructure so that Kansas City can be a truly welcoming city.

The biggest refugee population that we see is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. After the US evacuation from Afghanistan, the largest majority of individuals that we were working with were from Afghanistan, but still the DRC is our main population. We’re seeing increasing numbers of Cuban Haitian migrants and unaccompanied minors, and so in addition to refugee resettlement, we provide wraparound services for other populations as well.

During that 17 years, that person applies for legal refugee status with the United Nations and then whether a family or an individual comes to the United States is dependent on a couple of things. Do they have anybody already here in the United States? Do they have health needs? Social needs will help determine where they go. In partnership with Kansas City, Missouri, we let the federal government know how many individuals we can welcome and what populations we are equipped to help. That’s based on language and our staffing expertise. Then the federal government sometimes says, that’s great, we’re going to send you more!

In 2023, we welcomed 409 individuals. In fiscal year 24, we are on track to welcome over 600. In 2023, our full array of services, such as social work, health access, workforce development, translation services, language services, all served around 7000 individuals here in Kansas City.

So when a family arrives, we have a home secured for them. We are at the mercy of the federal government’s notice to us. Sometimes we’ll get four weeks’ notice that they’re coming, sometimes we’ll get four days. And so in whatever amount of time that is, we have to secure the housing and furnish it. Then we pick them up at the airport and we hand them the key to their home. We take them to their new home, where they open the front door and a warm culturally appropriate meal is waiting for them. We do a little bit of orientation with them on site. Here’s where your light switches are. Here’s where the garbage disposal is. Here’s your refrigerator. You want to be sure to put your eggs in the refrigerator. So we do those sorts of immediate things that evening. We let the family get a good night’s sleep. Then we pick them up the next morning and bring them to JVS and they meet with their caseworker. They get to visit our clothing closet. They get to pick up some fresh produce from our lobby and they begin their integration into the community. We begin talking to them about job skills and what work might look like for that family. We begin school enrollment. We address any health needs that the family has, and walk alongside them for the first three months. The federal government mandates that a newly arrived refugee family should be self-sufficient within 90 days. So the clock is ticking from the moment they arrive. And ultimately, we want the family or the individual to drive their new life.

The biggest hurdle that we currently face is a lack of affordable housing. As a federal subcontractor, we’re mandated to provide permanent housing to a family when they arrive. Securing that housing is becoming more and more difficult. Affordable housing is becoming incredibly saturated, especially in the historic northeast, which is where we like to resettle a lot of our families because the infrastructure up there is the most welcoming. The bus line is the most “reliable”, and I use that term loosely. The schools in the historic northeast are equipped to welcome and serve non English learners. And it’s culturally rich and vibrant and diverse. But like I said, the market in the historic Northeast is becoming really saturated. So that’s one issue. But then the other issue is the definition of what is affordable. There’s no shortage of housing in Kansas City. It feels like there are high rise apartment buildings going up all over the place. But we want to be able to set our families up for success so that they can support themselves and pay their rent after we are no longer doing that for them. It’s a challenge.

We’re in a political season that is fraught with polarization and divisive language. Any opportunity that we have to dispel myths or misconceptions, we want to be able to do that.

We have launched a new volunteer program in addition to the traditional volunteer opportunities that we offer. This ambassador program was designed as a way for community members to have a deeper connection to our work. Ambassadors walk alongside a newly arrived family for six months. JVS staff continue to offer the same core services that we’ve always offered, but the ambassador group gets to be responsible for setting up the home, for providing that culturally appropriate warm meal when we bring the family to their home, to helping reinforce the education that the family is receiving around community integration.

One of our first ambassador groups worked with a family longing for whole fish with heads. And so the ambassadors picked them up and they went to the city market on a Saturday and spent three hours there. The family was just tickled. They were so thrilled that they got to actually cook food in the way that they were used to cooking it with the types of foods that they were familiar with. That same group then also took the family to Deanna Rose Farmstead and to the zoo. So now that family and our ambassadors have developed a really meaningful friendship as a result of that. They’re still in touch and they continue to see each other and socialize. To me, that is one of the most meaningful and impactful ways that our community is getting introduced to the refugee community.

My life is so much richer because of this work. I am a far better person as a result of the last 14 months. Sure we are here to make the 600 individuals lives better and the 7000 individuals that we’re going to work with this year. It’s our mandate, and it’s our job and, quite frankly, our privilege to help improve their lives. But the ways that my life has been improved and enriched are outweighed exponentially.