LEWISTON – A Lewiston training series is being offered to help new immigrant and refugee service groups become more professional and effective.

Catholic Charities Maine is hosting four training sessions for Lewiston, Auburn and Portland refugee groups through July. Jen Babich, assistant director of program operations for Catholic Charities, said many of those groups qualify for nonprofit status but don’t know how to go about making it happen.

“We’re just trying to provide the standards and the training,” Babich said. “We want the ethnic-led groups to decide for themselves what they want to be and how they want to do it.”

The first training session is scheduled for March 31 and will discuss ways to get news about the groups out to the community. Future seminars will discuss getting financial aid, making group leaders better and working with similar agencies.

Catholic Charities is bringing RefugeeWorks, a Baltimore-based training program, to Lewiston to lead the seminars.

The classes are the first program from the New Mainers Partnership, which began in January. The partnership is a successor to the Portland and Lewiston Refugee Collaborative, which began in 2003. That combined the two cities’ resources to provide job training, education and housing services to newcomers.

In the New Mainers Partnership, Catholic Charities uses state and federal grants to monitor job training, housing and education programs in both cities.

Babich said she expects an Lewiston-based umbrella group to grow out of the classes. That would combine elements of several local groups, including Daryeelka, the United Somali Women of Maine, the African Immigrants Association and the African Emigrants Advocacy Group.

More information may be obtained by calling Catholic Charities Maine Refugee and Immigration Service in Lewiston at 344-6615 or 344-6616.

Copy the Story Link