At Home in King County: Educational Access in King County for Adult Somali Refugees.

While there is global research on the topic of adult refugee education, there is limited research on the accessibility of education for adult refugees in King County, Washington. My research offers an analysis of educational accessibility in King County for refugees from the African nation of Somalia, which is the provenance of the largest refugee population in the area. I conducted interviews with representatives from local organizations, namely Refugee Women’s Alliance, Refugees Northwest, Seattle Public Libraries, and Literacy Source in order to gain a better understanding of the strengths and challenges faced by these organizations and the refugees they serve, particularly regarding educational services. I argue that adult refugee education must be culturally aware and trauma informed for refugees to achieve a more expansive level of success. Additionally, a diversity of programs is necessary to meet all educational needs. In order to ensure that these types of programs are available in King County, governments at the city, county, and state levels must allocate more funding to refugee resettlement. The ultimate goal of this research is to advocate for refugee success and independence through education, with an emphasis on fortifying coping mechanisms and producing new knowledge to meet new challenges

Educational Access in King County for Adult Refugees from East Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2020)

While there is global research on the topic of adult refugee education, there is limited research into accessibility of education for adult refugees within King County, Washington. My research offers an analysis of educational accessibility in King County for refugees from the African nations of Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which together make up the largest refugee population in the area. I conducted interviews with representatives from the local organizations: Refugee Women’s Alliance, Refugees Northwest, Seattle Public Libraries, and Literacy Source in order to gain a better understanding of the strengths and challenges the organizations and refugees face regarding education. I argue that adult refugee education must be culturally aware and trauma informed in order for refugees to achieve the highest level of success. Additionally, a diversity of programs is necessary to meet all educational needs. In order to ensure that these types of programs are available within King County, city, county, and state governments must allocate more funding to refugee resettlement. The ultimate goal of this research is to advocate for refugee success and independence through education

Homelessness makes you sick: Dublin Simon Community snap shot health survey report 2010.

The Dublin Simon Community Snapshot Health Survey took place throughout Dublin Simon services1 during the week of July 26th – August 1st 2010. Overall 349 people participated in the survey – this equates to just under 50% of people who used Dublin Simon services during that week (n.729). The Health Survey aims to highlight the needs of people who are experiencing homelessness; it underlines how homelessness is not just about bricks and mortar. The majority of people seeking help have an array of complex needs ranging from physical to mental health conditions, both diagnosed and undiagnosed. Those conditions that are categorised as undiagnosed are conditions that are evident to the individual or their key worker but at the time of the survey had not been diagnosed. They are opinion based as opposed to medically confirmed conditions. In emphasising these complex issues a range of other factors were also taken into account and considered in this survey. These range across demographics, reasons for becoming homeless, length of time homeless, benefits and allowances, behavioural issues, and drug and alcohol consumption