Summit suggested for agencies that serve Lewiston-Auburn’s Somalis

LEWISTON – Many locals still don’t know how many Somalis live in Lewiston-Auburn, despite the immigrants having lived here for more than seven years.

Their needs – for education, health care and other aid – remain a mystery, even to the agencies charged with lending a hand, local leaders said Tuesday.

“No one really knows,” said Jim Lysen, executive director of community clinical services at the B Street Community Center. “I still don’t think we have a really good sense of the needs of the community.”

His clinic needs a number to accompany grant applications, a key bit of funding for the organization.

“It’s frustrating,” Lysen told about 30 people who gathered in a Bates College conference room.

Tuesday’s discussion grew out of a public policy talk at the school’s Harward Center. It was led by anthropologist Heather Lindkvist, who has studied the growing immigrant community since its early days.

Somalis have mixed feelings over such gathering of data, she said.

One one hand, it seems reasonable for a city to get a clear sense of the population it’s trying to help. On the other, it carries some Big Brother worries. The city does not track other ethnic or religious groups.

However, the question of how many people are here seems reasonable, said Somali Gure Ali, who serves as the chief administrative officer of the Lewiston-Auburn Neighborhood Network.

One answer may be for downtown agencies – from his own group to the city and other civic organizations – to share information they’ve already collected.

Ali’s group helps people in both cities find affordable homes, health care, education and other needs.

He suggested gathering groups that serve the Somali population for a kind of summit meeting. Along with talk of the numbers, more complicated issues such as the diversity within the Somali community would likely come up.

One of the biggest challenges is education, Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert said. Some immigrants come from rural parts of Somalia where education was scarce, leaving some illiterate even in their home language.

It makes learning English – a prerequisite for almost any American job – tougher, Gilbert said.

Since the immigrants began arriving in 2000, about 3,500 Somali people have been given aid from the city’s general assistance office.

There are more Somalis here, though. Ali estimated that the total number is closer to 5,000.

A survey ought to be done, Lindkvist said, but it would cost money. Even the 2010 census will probably be suspect, she said.

Getting a more reliable number will not be a substitute for assimilation, Gilbert said. Understanding Lewiston and blending with the culture here will take at least 30 years, he said.

“That’s the realistic news,” he said.