After nearly two decades of partnership, a national refugee resettlement agency is switching local subcontractors to manage its programs in Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo — a change that could temporarily reduce the number of refugees resettled in Ohio this year.

HIAS, founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, has ended its contract with Columbus-based US Together and is instead partnering with new affiliate Jewish Family Services (JFS) in Columbus beginning this month. New partners in Cleveland and Toledo have not yet been announced.

Alicia Wrenn, HIAS’ senior director for resettlement and integration, told The Dispatch that the changes were made to keep in line with HIAS’ model of working with other JFS chapters across the country.

“JFS Columbus has been working with refugees on employment-related programming for years, so they’re very familiar with refugees as a constituency,” she said. “We are super excited about JFS.”

Nadia Kasvin, US Together’s co-founder and director, said her organization would pivot to focus on other services for refugees and immigrants beyond the 90-day “resettlement period,” such as interpretation, legal aid, employment programs and a wellness clinic it started last year.

“We are deeply engaged with the communities that we serve and will continue to do it, because a lot of these communities have a tremendous need for continued services beyond resettlement,” Kasvin said, noting that US Together has been HIAS’ local affiliate since 2005.

HIAS is one of nine national resettlement agencies that partner with the federal government to place refugees in communities across the country. The agencies help determine where in the US to send arrivals after consulting with local schools, elected officials, police and other authorities.

At the local level, each agency has affiliates like US Together and JFS that help refugees settle, learn English, and find housing, jobs, doctors and schools. Refugees initially receive cash assistance and housing allowances, but most of the federal aid ends after three months — by which time most refugees are expected to support themselves.

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Community Refugee and Immigration Services, an affiliate of Church World Service, also resettles refugees in Columbus. another agency, Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Servicesreceived hundreds of Afghan humanitarian parolees after the fall of Kabul and has applied to become a refugee resettlement partner.

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Throughout Ohio, US Together resettled more than 1,300 individuals in the fiscal year that ended in September, including refugees and parolees from Ukraine and Afghanistan, according to Kasvin. It finished resettling its last family in January.

JFS will receive a group of 18 individuals from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Iraq within the next 60 days. The agency expects to resettle 120 individuals in Greater Columbus by September — about half the number that were planned for US Together, according to Wrenn.

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“The numbers will contract a little bit in the short run, but I think eventually we will have really strong numbers arriving in Ohio with new partners,” she said.

Although it will be taking on a new role as a resettlement affiliate, JFS Columbus has decades of experience providing long-term services to refugees around employment, housing, and other needs, according to CEO Karen Mozenter.

“Right now our staff speak around 22 different languages ​​and dialects and come from many of the same countries that refugees will be coming from. So we have that expertise and it’s exciting — this ability to offer a comprehensive range of services,” she said.

She said that JFS staff member Tariq Mohamed, a Somali American who has experience coordinating workforce programs, will lead refugee resettlement services.

“Serving refugees is in our agency’s DNA. … The Jews have been refugees many times throughout our people’s history, and so we welcome refugees because we were refugees too,” Mozenter said. “But the other side is the economic piece — refugees have contributed so much to our local economy and brought so much vitality to central Ohio.”

Peter Gill covers immigration and new American communities for The Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America here: bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.

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@pitaarji

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: JFS to replace US Together as Columbus refugee resettlement agency