PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A social services organization in the city is launching a special program aimed at helping Ukrainian refugees flourish on the job as well and in their daily lives.
“We got our start serving refugees, particularly Jews who were fleeing Nazi Germany,” says Cynthia Figueroa, president and CEO of JEVS Human Services.
The not-for-profit, founded in 1941 as the Employment and Vocational Bureau, changed its name to Jewish Employment and Vocational Services in 1951. In the ensuing decades, the organization evolved to expand the scope of its services and the communities that benefit from them, and the name changed again.
Today, JEVS Human Services helps roughly 19,000 people across the region through nearly 40 programs. And it's is staying true to its roots by offering English-as-a-second-language classes focused specifically on the needs of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their war-torn country.
“[Employers] were hiring from us, but even once somebody gets hired, there’s still some barriers. And if English was your second language, there’s continued needs once you show up in the employment space,” she said.
Figueroa says the program is a partnership with ACME Corrugated Box, a company that hires a lot of the refugees who come through JEVS training programs but who still struggle with their English.
“[They] came to us and said: Hey, how do we help resolve this issue? How do we make them a part of our community?” she said.
“Any refugee coming here from Ukraine so desperately wants to be contributing to society.”
Figueroa says she knows a thing or two about the particular challenges of learning a new language while acclimating to life in a new country.
“As a first-generation family, English was not my first language,” she said.
“You don’t realize how much you are taught academically in another language but conversationally just what it takes to get around.”
Figueroa says JEVS is working on expanding the program by working with other companies.
“These opportunities show the strength of America and how good we are as a country, and that we’re a country based on immigrants.”