WELCOME
NEW NEIGHBORS FROM AFGHANISTAN
Through the APA (Afghan Placement & Assistance) Program, Oklahoma City has welcomed over 1,000 new neighbors from Afghanistan since September 2021.
The Spero Project is a proud partner of the resettled refugee community in OKC and is honored to partner with our new neighbors from Afghanistan. Your support will ensure that new neighbors are connected to the people, resources, and learning opportunities that make OKC a place of belonging for years to come.
Your financial support provides new neighbors in the APA community with:
English classes
Transportation
Translation services
School liaisons
And much more!
Additionally, it provides networks of relational support that both give and receive what we call "the wonder of welcome."
Please select ‘APA’ to direct funds.
Note: Spero will continue to add services to meet the needs of new neighbors from Afghanistan and your support is needed to make this possible! In addition to these new neighbors, the resettled refugee community of OKC continues to grow through traditional resettlement. Financial partners who give to the APA Fund will primarily resource new neighbors from Afghanistan but may also be used for broader programs that benefit the larger refugee community.
To volunteer with Spero, view our opportunities here:
What is Afghan Placement & Assistance?
Afghan Placement & Assistance (APA) ran from September 1, 2021 - March 1, 2022 with the expectation of 50,000 Afghan Parolees to become neighbors in the USA. OKC received more than 1000 people over that 6 month time period. To give context to the scope of arrival of this magnitude, OKC resettled a total of 470 individuals over the last 5 years.
APA is a separate federal program from refugee resettlement and is run locally through Oklahoma’s resettlement agency, Catholic Charities. Because of this program’s sudden beginning and the sheer number of individuals needing to be processed quickly, there have been many uncertainties in terms of longstanding care, legal status, and access to resources from state and federally funded programs.
For example, neighbors who arrived through this program were resettled with the legal status of Humanitarian Parole. Humanitarian Parole is a temporary legal immigration status that typically does not have a direct path to permanent residency like refugee status does. Because of this, within one year of arrival, those who are on this status must apply for Asylum or adjustment of legal status based on a family member. Asylum is a long, uncertain, difficult, and expensive process. There has been a proposed bill, the Afghan Adjustment Act, which would address the issue of permanent residency for those who arrived in the US through this program, however, no resolution has been met so far. Knowing the realities of the asylum system, Spero began partnering with what would become the Afghan Legal Network (ALN) in December of 2021. Through this partnership with ALN, Afghan families are able to access specialized legal immigration support from experienced attorneys.
There are many other complexities in this program that have required quick responses and critical thinking to address, such as a lag between arrival into OKC and the obtaining of work authorization; lack of housing opportunities; addressing nuanced medical needs in a new culture; gaps in schooling, etc. It is important to note that families arrived in OKC shortly after experiencing acute trauma and displacement,which can have a profound impact on individuals' overall adjustment to life, work, education, etc. With this understanding, Spero firmly believes that engaging with new neighbors from a trauma informed, culturally honoring perspective is vital to creating spaces of safety for families to thrive.
We are continuing to learn the full spectrum of specific needs in this community as we walk alongside new neighbors , and in response, we also continue to expand personalized assistance with housing, education, transportation, medical care, translation and more. As we know from nearly fifteen years of partnership in the resettled community, it requires wrap-around, innovative and responsive efforts from community partners to see neighbors thrive as they navigate life in OKC, and Spero and Catholic Charities are both fully committed to welcoming new neighbors well and ensuring that OKC is a place of belonging.
In 2023, Spero began a partnership with OKDHS to provide two new programs in the resettled Afghan community. You can learn more about this partnership here!