The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has accepted the Elder Refugee Services Plan, a project that will increase outreach efforts and linkages to the county’s elderly refugee population.
Vietnamese Voluntary Foundation (VIVO), which has represented the Santa Clara County Senior Refugee Service Consortium in contracts with the County of Santa Clara Social Services Agency since 2001, will remain the lead agency of the Senior Refugees Consortium to administer the project.
The Elder Refugee Services Plan seeks to create linkages to services currently available in assisting low-income immigrants with the naturalization and citizenship process, and to other helpful programs related to food distribution and nutrition, health service information and social activities already available to mainstream seniors. For the past year alone Santa Clara County Senior Refugee Service Consortium served 125 elder refugees; of these, 49 have started their N-400 (naturalization filing process).
“The consortium members and VIVO have collectively met the contractual goals and performance standards,” said Social Services Agency Director Will Lightbourne. “We are confident that they can successfully aid the county in outreach to the elderly refugee population.”
The services will be possible thanks to a discretionary federal grant for services to senior refugees ages 60 and older, received by the county, after identifying a local refugee organization(s) that could present a viable projects application to this population. From Oct. 1, 2005 through Sept. 30, 2007, the County of Santa Clara Social Services Agency will administer $26,657 each year. If additional funding is identified by the state, the agreement allows two additional one -year extensions.
There are approximately 1,554 refugees over 60 years of age in the county who received support from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI). The Elder Refugee Services Plan targets elderly refugees in need of services, starting with those at risk of loosing their SSI and supplemental (SSP) benefits.
To address the great difficulty elderly refugees experience in gaining citizenship, this year’s proposed federal budget includes a provision that would extend and additional year of SSI/SSP benefit from seven to eight years for refugees and humanitarian entrants that arrived after Aug. 22, 1996, but have not obtained U.S. citizenship and are at risk of losing benefits.
Besides health and financial challenges, elderly refugees frequently deal with stressful situations in a new land, from struggling with a new language, to sacrificing to keep family intact, to isolation. They also face poorer health, and limited income. Many do not know how to access mainstream senior services without assistance from bilingual bicultural workers familiar with these services.
