Refugee Response member returns to serve with Resettlement Corps

After launching our Refugee Response Initiative in 2021, the need to support people from all over the world start new lives in Minnesota has only increased. To meet community needs, Ampact launched Resettlement Corps. Ash served with Refugee Response last term and is excited to continue her service as a Legal Services Navigator with Resettlement Corps! 

After serving with the Refugee Response Initiative to help support Afghan evacuees in Minnesota, Ash was excited to return for another term of service with Resettlement Corps 

In 2021, the Refugee Response Initiative launched to support Afghan evacuees arriving in Minnesota. Given the success of the initiative and ongoing community needs, Resettlement Corps was born.  

Ash served with Refugee Response last term and is excited to continue her service as a Legal Services Navigator with Resettlement Corps! Ash was new to Minnesota when she started her service in 2022. She relocated to Minnesota from New York City and looked for a path to pursue her passion for human rights. “I really agree with AmeriCorps and Ampact’s principles and the way the organizations responded to this emerging response that was needed,” she said. “When I saw that the program wasn’t ending when my term ended, I felt called to continue working.” 

Members of Resettlement Corps serve in three positions: Resettlement Housing Navigators, Legal Service Navigators and Family Coach Navigators. Using all three positions, the program’s goal is to support clients in finding stability in the U.S. by navigating housing, employment, legal, and educational systems.  

As a Legal Services Navigator, Ash connects her clients with attorneys and other legal assistance. She also teaches them about the immigration process and connects them with any other support they may need. Having attended law school, the position is a perfect fit for her. At her service site, she works predominantly with families traveling from Afghanistan, but members of Resettlement Corps serve clients from all over the world. On a day-to-day basis, Ash works with a translator to interview clients upon their intake, follows up with them regularly, helps them fill out forms and applications and connects them with any other services to achieve their goals. 

Ash enjoys the variety of tasks she does every day, but meeting with her clients is what drives her to continue serving. “They’ve been through a lot, not even just evacuation, but with a turbulent history the last few decades,” she says. “A lot of people are really traumatized but also love their home. Hearing their stories, both good and bad, is the best part of the job, getting to just sit and talk to people about their homeland that they miss.” 

Resettlement Corps members receive training that prepares them for a career in the field after they finish their service. Partnering with the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS), members receive training in partnership with DHS and learn about immigration structures, the cultures they may see on the job, data collection, case management and more! 

Ash’s experience serving in our programs has helped bring her career goals into focus. ”I’m going to work in human rights. That’s what I want to do. That’s something that’s very true to who I am, being on the ground, in front of people, helping them with what they need,” she says. “With refugee work and law specifically, you’re working with people face to face, and you’re trying to problem-solve and figure out what’s best for your client and their family. It’s really fulfilling.” 

Serve with Resettlement Corps!

Applications open on February 15, 2023.