SOUTH SALT LAKE — Refugee leaders told Gov. Gary Herbert on Tuesday that the new Utah Refugee Education and Training Center, which will provide educational, life skills and job-seeking services, is a "home" to Utah's refugee population.
"This is my place. Utah is my country," said Jawaher Fadhel, a Sudanese refugee, addressing Herbert during a panel discussion at an open house for the center on the Salt Lake Community College Meadowbrook Campus.
The center is a partnership among SLCC, Utah State University and the Utah Department of Workforce Services. Its goal is to bridge the gap between refugees' initial jobs after resettlement and the skills and training they need to earn a wage to adequately provide for them and their families.
"The most important partner is you," Herbert said. "This is really about people."
Fadhel said the opportunity to talk to Herbert was a thrill.
"I'm so excited I can't even talk. It's just a huge moral support you can give for the refugees," she said.
Jon Pierpont, executive director of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, said wages of refugees resettled in Utah tend to be lower than the typical population.
"We want to change that," Pierpont said.
The center is offering a wide array of classes intended to help refugees sharpen their skills, such as using computers and learning English, to job-seeking assistance, such as interview preparation. The center also helps people connect to higher education classes, English instruction and courses to learn to start a businesses through the Microbusiness Connection Center, and a training kitchen.
Zakiya Ali, an SLCC student, said many refugees have never attended school.
"They never knew what a computer is," said Ali, a Sudanese refugee.
The new center will be a boon to refugees who need help with school, job training and a place to connect with other refugees.
"This place, this center, when you come, you go, 'Oh, that's my home,'" she said.
Tino Nyawelo, a refugee from South Sudan who works with youth, said one of the greatest challenges his program faces is frequent moves from building to building. The new center should help resolve that issue.
"I'm so excited our dream came true," he said.
Gerald Brown, director of the state Refugee Services Office, said the opening of the new center is "the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people."
"It's the beginning. It's going to grow. I think it's going to prove itself as a wonderful asset to our whole community. The community will be great if everyone integrates and learns from each other and helps each other. The center will go a long way to facilitating that," he said.
Businesses and employers interested in hiring refugees or supporting the programs offered at the center can visit refugee.utah.gov for more information. Utahns who want to volunteer with refugees are encouraged to attend a volunteer orientation open house 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 21, at the new center, 250 W. 3900 South.
Aden Batar of Catholic Community Services of Utah said the new center will complement its comprehensive refugee resettlement efforts by helping people with their educational, job training and job-seeking needs.
"It's good for the refugees to have a center like this where they can come and get the education and training that they need and also a space where they can meet when they have community gatherings or when they have events. I think this will be really great," said Batar, director of immigration and refugee resettlement.
Patrick Poulin, executive director of the International Rescue Committee's Salt Lake office, said "the really wonderful thing about today is it shows refugees are welcome in Utah.
"It's just very impressive to see people, what they've gone through, here they are working to make America better. It's pretty American to me," Poulin said.
Although some 60,000 refugees have been resettled in Utah since the end of the Vietnam War, there is heightened awareness about refugees worldwide because of the millions of Syrians who have been recently displaced.
A few hundred are expected to be resettled in Utah, but their arrival is not expected for at least a year, local resettlement officials say. Applicants will be going through an extremely stringent selection process, and resettlement efforts are further complicated because Syrian refugees have scattered to so many areas.
"We're focused on the Syrians, which is totally understandably right now. But for every refugee, they have their own story. Even though it may not be as immediate, any refugee coming in today has gone through a similar situation. To my mind, what people can do, they can actually help the refugee in front of them, and we have lots of them in Utah," Poulin said.
With the holidays approaching, Batar said many refugees are in need.
"We have families that need warm clothing. Winter is coming, so I think there's a lot of needs that we have. People can contact us and we will connect them with refugee families if they want to donate their time. If they can donate materially, we can let them know what they need," he said.
Email: marjorie@deseretnews.com