The Fusion Project, funded through a grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), was a three year project in Lincoln, Nebraska targeting four refugee ethnic communities: African; Asian; Eastern European; and Middle Eastern. The project’s goals were for:
• the refugee communities to work together to share and learn about developing vibrant ethnic communities;
• each refugee family to achieve self-sufficiency and social and civic integration into their new country and community; and
• Lincoln’s mainstream community to be better equipped to work with refugees.
The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center served as the project evaluator to assess Fusion’s success in reaching the stated goals. Stories and perceptions of the project’s activities and their impact were related by Fusion Project participants and served as the basis of the evaluation. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted with project staff members and representatives of participating mainstream community organizations. Interviewees were asked about their experiences with the Fusion Project, the perceived impact of the project, what was successful, what wasn’t as effective, and if they had suggestions for what might be done differently
