Arizona Refugee Resettlement OST-Ethnically diverse group

[ORT MARIA]

Dear Funda, Tree, Kerry, Phil, Harrison and Christine,

Just wanted to update you on the results of the OS with the Arizona Refugee Resettlement group. The State Coordinator was hoping that the outcome of this day and half retreat would be that the individual providers would get to know one another better, be willing to collaborate more effectively, and take responsibility for innovation and action rather than expecting the State to tell them what to do.  

You eased my fears. I took your advice to heart and simply kept the space truly open throughout, never assuming anything about the group or their cultural practices. Once the participants realized that they were completely in charge of their own experience (and that didn't take long), they took it on wholeheartedly. Day 1 didn't start until after 10am and started with a general discussion around the report of results with 8 focus groups (refugee groups and provider groups). I invited participants to consider the results as potential context (along with their own experiences) for the OP topic: In light of the diversity of refugees coming to Arizona, what are the issues and opportunities for providing responsible and appropriate refugee resettlement? 

The results: 30 attendees conducted and recorded 15  1.5 hour sessions in the afternoon. The next morning we worked on identifying the overarching themes emerging. They decided that the themes pointed to the creation of a state-wide association where they could pool their resources to offer the kind of training, education, advocacy and resource coordination they couldn't do as effectively on their own. This surprised me because I hadn't expected such a huge priority to emerge. I'd imagined and prepared for 2-4 priority action groups to form. So after a deep breath, I invited those who had the passion and the willingness to champion its creation to sign up (9 people immediately signed up). After a bit of conversation, it became evident that the whole group wanted to talk about some start-up actions on this priority, so we did. I invited some of the champions to come up and "facilitate" the conversation, which worked well. Our time was running out so I volunteered to host a 3 hour action-planning session with anyone in the group who wanted to attend (along with the champions) so we could get a broad cross-section of action ideas, then form task groups. We meet on March 29th and will do the TOP project action-planning method that works so well. 

This was my first OST "convergence" experience. I don't feel entirely comfortable with it yet but the participants were delighted with OST results. They followed through within days to set the action-planning meeting date. The "holding the space" part is still a challenge for me but improving. I still feel a bit guilty about not doing anything but holding them in my thoughts for the best outcome possible while picking up coffee cups and moving chairs! 

Happy days...it is finally raining in Phoenix, Arizona. Thanks again for your coaching.
Maria Carpenter Ort







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