Author Archives: aalfonso625

Yesterday was an extremely busy day at CRIS. There were a lot of housekeeping jobs that needed to be completed before I leave Friday. With the hiring of a new cultural orientation teacher and new case worker assistants, the resettlement … Continue reading →

Monday and Wednesday marked my final cultural orientation teaching days. The cultural group was Somali and they were all very attentive and engaged in the material and asked good, thoughtful questions. CRIS hired a full time cultural orientation instructor who … Continue reading →

This week has been jam packed full of activities and responsibilities. After the Columbus Foundation learning session, I went to my first WIC appointment at their clinic/office on Indianola close to Morse Rd. WIC stands for Women Infants and Children … Continue reading →

I had my firsts “extended” stay at the social security office this past week. I went with the case worker Ahmed Kamil and we were registering a family of seven for their social security numbers and cards. The line was … Continue reading →

It is very rare that I get to accompany a client starting from their arrival in the US and then taking them through the entire resettlement process of finding an apartment, delivering the home supplies kit, going to the furniture … Continue reading →

This week there were no cultural orientation classes at CRIS, so I spent some of my free time speaking to different employees to get a sense of the other tasks CRIS performs. I spoke to Nathan Szabados who works in … Continue reading →

The past week has been pretty much business as usual. I taught my cultural orientation class to the newly arrived Bhutanese/Nepali clients on Monday and Wednesday and both days went very well. What I have enjoyed most about the cultural … Continue reading →

June 20th was World Refugee day and in honor of this CRIS put on a small festival to commemorate this day and celebrate the diverse refugee cultures represented both in Columbus and throughout the world. The event was full of ethnic … Continue reading →

Resettlement is an entirely different world than my experience in the basic employability department of CRIS last summer. The two departments are only separated by a single staircase, but their interaction with each other might as well put them in … Continue reading →