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Show One family mentor asked, "Where do the obligations begin and end between case manager and mentor and do the families themselves know that? " (FG 1). 5.1.1.5 The majority of family mentors are unaware of the services that IRC provides to refugee families. Family mentors, overall, do not read or refer to their distributed materials for guidance in this area (FGs, Is, and 8 of 12 surveys). Family mentors would like to know what they should do in case of a medical problem or emergency, a housing issue, a financial or banking matter, a legal concern, job services, etc. Above all, family mentors would like to know who to contact if they have not been able to get a response from IRC within a week or after three or four contact attempts. One mentor said, "The only thing that I would like to have known and would like to still know is who I can contact at !RC when things don't necessarily work out. For example, who can I contact after I haven't been able to get responses from either the Resource Developer or the Vista Worker for weeks and weeks on end? Since [Resource Developer] has gotten involved it has been better but it has still happened. My only concern is that the needs of the family are not being met because with a lot of issues, timing can be crucial" (FG 1). 5.1.1.6 This is also very frustrating for case managers, who are aware ofIRC's specialists who adhere to certain categories of issues. They feel that the family mentors only contact IRC when there is an emergency or after family mentors have taken steps in taking care of the family issue on their own without making IRC aware of what is happening with the families. This creates a myriad of accountability issues for IRC as well as for individual family mentors. Additionally, this wastes resources. One case manager remarked, "We can't just have these people (family mentors) calling in upset. As case managers, we need to know what the issues are with the families and work together to find solutions not just be called and asked random questions about an issue "(CMFG). 5.1.1.7 The majority of family mentors are unaware that, after six months, IRC is obligated to drop many of their services to refugee families. Again, family mentors as a whole do not read or refer to their distributed materials for guidance in this area (FGs, Is, and 8 of 12 surveys). Additionally, the fact that the majority of mentors remain working with their families beyond the six-month dropping point causes three main issues for IRC. First, case managers are solicited for feedback by family mentors regarding families that have been dropped. This is a frustration for case mangers who are already very busy servicing current families. In this case, family mentors are seen as a hindrance to the work of case managers and not an asset. One case manager remarked, "Once the families are passed on there is nothing that we can do. I mean the mentors can report back to us but its like, well that's nice but sorry what do you want us to do?"(CMFG). 5 .1.1. 8 The second issue is played out in the form of unofficial family mentoring. This includes family mentors who are working with families beyond the six-month drop but also for family mentors who begin working with other refugee families without IRC being aware of it. The issue is not the befriending of other refugee families by family mentors. The issue is that unofficial family mentors are working with refugee families that are under the impression that these mentors are representatives of IRC (CMFG). This could cause a variety of liability issues for IRC. One family mentor comments, "No, I didn't feel like !RC was checking up on us at all. I feel like we could have been 15 of 15 |
