Amir Samar and his family arrived in Vermont in January 2022, following nearly six months at a military base in Wisconsin, where they fled after the Taliban captured their home city of Kabul, Afghanistan.

But instead of moving to another base, Samar’s family and other Afghan refugees were invited to stay at the School for International Training, or SIT, in Brattleboro. It was part of a temporary housing program created with help from team members of the Southern Vermont Working Communities Challenge initiative.

Samar stayed on the campus for about a month and a half.

“We needed help enrolling the kids in school, navigating public transportation, and finding grocery stores,” he said. “People were very welcoming and supportive.”
Samar is now an employee of the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, where he helps other new arrivals find jobs in Vermont – a state that’s facing workforce shortages due to its rapidly aging population.

Vermont, like rural areas nationwide, is also dealing with numerous other issues that impact the workforce, such as limited access to public transportation, health care, and housing. Alex Beck – who works for the corporation and also directs the local Working Communities team – said for the last decade, locals have been asking, “What’s going to happen when more people retire?” His team is hoping their efforts to expand the workforce will help provide some relief.

The team’s goal is to attract 1,000 new residents, particularly those with immigrant backgrounds, to southern Vermont in the next 10 years.

The campus resettlement efforts are one aspect of this initiative, which more broadly aims to make sure workforce development supports and systems work better for the whole community.

“Rural communities can’t afford to create entirely separate systems for immigrants and refugees,” Beck said. “So, we’re working on solutions that will make life better for all Vermonters.” 

Working Communities members collaborate to improve public services

The Working Communities Challenge is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Working Places initiative, which brings different sectors of a community together to strengthen their local economies.

The Southern Vermont Working Communities Challenge team includes the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, or BDCC, and SIT – which is part of the global nonprofit World Learning. They partnered with the Ethiopian Community Development Council, or ECDC, a national refugee resettlement agency, to launch the New Vermonter Education Program in 2021.

In addition to offering temporary housing on SIT’s Brattleboro campus, the program also provides English classes, cultural orientation, and assistance in finding employment.

World Learning senior advisor Tim Rivera said that Working Communities is helping local organizations develop new relationships and solutions. For example, the team noticed residents who worked in the afternoon and evening had no public transportation options. So, the partners worked to add new shuttlebus routes that anyone could use.

Rivera said refugee resettlement efforts touch on areas of broad concern – including transportation, education, housing, workforce development, healthcare – so they end up having wide impacts.

“The partnership we have developed between SIT, ECDC, and BDCC, has strengthened the overall spectrum of public service in the area – which I think is a huge additional benefit,” he said.

Resettlement efforts help bolster the local workforce

So far, the New Vermonter Education Program has helped resettle more than 350 refugees – from countries including Afghanistan, Eritrea, Venezuela, and Ukraine – across southern Vermont.

Samar said once new arrivals are settled at the university campus, he does an initial interview to learn more about their education, career backgrounds, and goals. He then helps update their resumes, takes them to training workshops, and often sits in on job interviews to provide translation services and explain benefits employers are offering.

“After they’ve landed their first jobs and become comfortable with their English and other skills, I will continue providing the same employment services for their next job, too,” he said.

Beck said the new arrivals have filled a variety of positions in numerous sectors, from health food, to shipping and logistics, to woodworking and lumber. He said having numerous families at the School for International Training campus has improved efficiency.

“We’ve been able to onboard six or seven employees at a time within a company because we had a reliable translator right here,” he said.

The program was recognized in a joint letter from the U.S. Secretaries of State and Education in June. World Learning has also launched the “Supporting Higher Education in Refugee Resettlement” initiative to help other institutions with campus space interested in supporting resettlement.

Beck said similar efforts need to continue to ensure new arrivals can stay in Vermont long-term.

“It’s a lot of frequent communication and coordination,” he said. “If we weren’t all working in the same direction, people would fall through the cracks.”

Read more about the Working Places initiative on bostonfed.org.