Coordinator needed for Women's Empowerment Program with Refugees!

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Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights is a service-based, human rights organization that provides housing, health care, human services, and human rights protections to the most poor and vulnerable people in our society, and uses its 118 years of experience to advocate for social justice.

The Women’s Empowerment Program seeks to alleviate the stress some refugee women experience by forming and facilitating a mentorship relationship between the refugee woman and an American mentor. The mentor’s main duty is to provide social support and hopefully form a close relationship that serves as a protective factor for her. This can be done by tutoring her in English, helping her navigate Chicago including the CTA and talking to her about daily stresses in life.

The program is extremely important for refugee women. Most of the women in the program showed vast improvement in English and increased confidence in social situations. Refugee women experience multiple levels of oppression. Being a refugee comes with significant trauma, and being a woman carries additional stress. The intersectionality experienced by refugee women affects their mental health. Numerous studies have shown that social support is a protective factor from negative mental health effects, making the Women’s Empowerment Program crucial for this population.

The Women’s Empowerment Program’s goals are to help refugee women at a micro level, and at a wider scale macro level. By addressing the oppression experienced by refugee women through a mentorship program, the meetings between the mentor and mentee should include consciousness raising and education. Because women are the basis of every family, helping refugee women helps refugee families and the refugee population as a whole.

WEP Coordinator Task and Duties

· Review and prioritize Women’s Empowerment Referral Forms

· Organize and keep up-to-date waiting list for mentees and mentors

· Conduct phone interviews of potential mentor volunteers

· Conduct regular Women’s Empowerment Program specific orientations

· Conduct intake/screening with potential new mentees

· Pair Mentors and Mentees

· Maintain ongoing relationships with mentors on the waiting list as well as current matches

· Conduct monthly home visits with mentees

· Must be available for a minimum of 10 hours a week for 6 continuous months

· Training will take place in our office between 10am-3pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the first two weeks; you MUST be available for at least 3 hours per day during these times

Qualifications:

1. Excellent communication and organizational skills.
2. Interest in working with refugees in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic environment.
3. Patience and flexibility.
4. Computer proficiency.
5. Some knowledge of ESL and teaching or tutoring experience is helpful.
6. Language proficiency in Arabic, Burmese, Farsi, and French is preferred, but not required.
7. Identify as female