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Ohio Voices in Education | Igniting Ideas, Inspiring Change
Season 2 of The Conversation is here! This season we’ll be exploring themes that will keep you informed, excited, and engaged —with a new twist, several of our episodes will include a student’s perspective. Listen along this fall as we ignite ideas and inspire change.
Elizabeth Cusma:
You have a safety plan, you should have a language access plan. If you think of it that way, it's like, "Oh, of course, this makes sense," right? And it's also a way of attracting families to your district, right? If they know that they can be served and helped and the parents can go to the school for ESL classes, the weight that takes off a families is tremendous.
Speaker 2:
That was Elizabeth Cusma, an immigration specialist and the current site director at US Together Cleveland, a nonprofit organization providing services for immigrants and refugees in the Ohio area. On this episode of The Conversation, we'll discuss their efforts to provide education and workforce services to Ukrainian immigrants and refugees affected by the Russia-Ukraine War. Let's dive in.
John Hambrick:
Well, welcome to The Conversation. This is John Hambrick, alongside my co-host, Christina Grady-Watts, and we're bringing you really cool conversations around education, workforce, and current events. We're so grateful today to have US Together from the Cleveland area, and alongside we've got Elizabeth Cusma and Luda Pinchuk sharing about Ukrainians here in Ohio. What's going on in Ukraine today?
Elizabeth Cusma:
This is a very difficult time for people in Northeast Ohio, in Ohio, in the northeast part of the country, in the country as a whole, and for Europe and even as far away as China. The destabilization of Europe because of this is a huge problem. And for people like Luda on my staff and in our community, it's not just a world event. It's, "How is my sister? Is my mom safe? Where is my family today? Did a bomb hit on their block?" So this is an active war situation and everyday living through that is challenging, and it's especially challenging when the rest of the people around you aren't experiencing it that way. I think there's a lot of isolation in the feelings of how this is being processed and dealt with here in the United States, which is why having people from your country who are of Ukrainian descent here locally and having a big community is really, really helpful. But it's surrounded by many countries, Romania, Poland, we hear a lot about Romania and Poland currently in the war.
And so, it's been territory that's been fought over for thousands of years, whether by the Austro-Hungarians, whether by Soviet Russia, they've had a lot of people invade that area. And it was under different rulership on and off for a long, long time. They separated from the USSR in 1991 when the USSR collapsed and have been an independent country since then. We know in 2014, Russia invaded Crimea, which is in the southeast part of the country on the sea, and it is still not been... Russia has maintained control of it. And the mass migration out of the country because of the war has been a challenge for Europe. We know a lot of people have been casualties in this war so far. There's not a lot of men in Ukraine.
So the fate of the future is very unknown, and the fate of a lot of the Ukrainians in the United States is very unknown because they're here on temporary status. They don't have full refugee or green card holder privileges. And so, there's only so much you can do when you don't know if you're coming or going. And that in and of itself is an extremely stressful position to be in on top of having to live your daily life, figure out how to live in a new place. So this is not a new issue per se, but it is a new issue in our current geopolitical system.
Christina Grady-Watts:
Yeah, I can't even imagine what that would be like for them. And for you, Luda being so close to that, can you talk a little bit about what the Ukrainian experience in Ohio is like?
Elizabeth Cusma:
Yeah. So I'll start and then Luda can chime in. So the Ukrainian experience in Ohio has been one of a very classic immigration story. We've had Ukrainians coming to Ohio for 150 years. A big community has built up in Parma over the last 150 years. So not a new community. And that's partly why Ukrainians keep coming to Ohio because we have long-established communities. There's also special refugee visas for people from former Soviet countries, which has continued to allow an ongoing 20th and 21st century migration, which is not the same for a lot of other European countries. We don't have an active flow of Italians, for example, coming to make a new life here the same way. So it's a relatively unique community in that regard.
And so, people continue to bring family members over, and that's how it was right up until very recently. And because of this war, we've seen people come in who never thought they would ever leave Ukraine. It's very different if you have an aunt or an uncle or a sister here and you decide that you want to throw your lot in and try to make that move and start a new life. It's a different situation when you're forced to leave because of a conflict like this. And so, we're dealing with people who just like you and me, just had to uproot and leave their entire lives behind. So in that sense, they're much similar to other refugee communities, Somalia, for example. But they're different in the sense that they're highly educated, Westernized people. So we share some things culturally with Ukraine that we don't share with some of our other refugee communities.
But Ukrainians share certain things with other communities that they don't share right with us as Americans. So from a 30,000-foot point of view, it's very interesting sociologically like that. What is so great about Northeast Ohio and cities like Chicago and New York, because you have long-term communities, you have services that are built up in Ukrainian. There are grocery stores, there's hair salons, there's school systems that understand how to work with the community because parents have raised children. Those children have gone on to become doctors or teachers. They can service the community in that language. And so, you have that cultural and linguistic integration that is not the same for many of our African refugees, our Asian refugees.
So we have a long history of accepting immigrants because of how our economy worked. We needed lots of people to make our economy work. So it was a great place to come. You didn't necessarily speak English. You could get a job and build your life from there. Now we're not so as heavily reliant on unskilled labor. And so, finding jobs that you don't need a lot of English for or finding jobs that meet your skillset, if you are a middle manager, for example, how do you find a job that will allow you to support your family while you decide if you're even going to stay here for the next two years?
Which is why the religious communities here are so supportive and helpful. We have many, many churches and community groups that are Ukrainian and can create that second home for families here. And then school districts like Parma have just done a phenomenal job of getting all of the aides, and teaching supplements, and tutors and counselors to work with the ELL population, which is mostly Ukrainians but not all Ukrainian, and really is an excellent model to be emulated by other school districts. And because so much of a family life revolves around the kids going to school, it is an integral element to families being able to just live life. Luda, is there anything you'd like to add?
Lyudmyla Pinchuk:
Yeah, I would like to add some stuff immigration related. So before what happened in Ukraine, Ukrainians were able to come to United States only if they had family members. LB be through family reunion, through Lautenberg Law as a refugees, but they also have to help somebody in United States to unite with, or if they want DV lottery, which is green card lottery. Otherwise, there was no easy way to get to United States. And now what is really impressive to me, strangers are helping strangers to keep war and to help them to come to United States to sponsor them and help them to start new life. It's also not only Ukrainians, but Americans and different organization, churches, which is really impressive because in time of need, we actually are helping each other, which is how it's supposed to be, I believe.
Christina Grady-Watts:
Can you talk a little bit more about that sponsorship process? Expand on that a little bit for me.
Lyudmyla Pinchuk:
Yes. So if some family or organization or individual decides to sponsor family from Ukraine, mean to bring them to United States and to help them to start their new life here in United States, they should apply for special for visa, which is not visa basically, it's a parole status. And when those papers get processed and screened, so after that, people from Ukraine can actually join the sponsor in United States. It takes sometimes from three months to six months. Now it takes longer.
When war just started, it was time-pressed, time was shorter, but now, I guess, maybe because of overwhelming amount of Ukrainians coming to United States, it's longer. On the other hand, when war just started, Ukrainians could just come to United States through Mexican border, and they've been paroled right on the border. So they didn't have to have a sponsor then or special visa or anything. They just could come to the border, explain show Ukrainian passport, and explain that they fled the war and they've been given parole status. So there was many volunteering organizations on the border helping Ukrainians to come to United States. I mean, to apply for everything they need to apply and provide them with places to stay, to wait until they get this status and then help them to move through United States depending on if they knew somebody in some states or some cities or not. So that was really helpful.
John Hambrick:
And as you had mentioned earlier that Parma is really an epicenter for Ukrainians finding a home in Ohio. I'm curious from your experience, how is the rest of Ohio treating Ukrainians as far as student learners, community supports? How is that looking so far?
Elizabeth Cusma:
So we have Ukrainians all throughout the state, all throughout Summit and Stark counties. We have Ukrainians. There's a whole group of them in Green Township who've been there for 20 years. So they're getting a lot of people. We have a lot of Ukrainians in Columbus. Our main office is in Columbus. That's where we started by two Ukrainian refugees. And so then later we expanded to Cleveland and then after that to Toledo. So we service Ukrainians all over the state. And we also, the refugee immigrant organizations are all pretty well-connected in Ohio at large. So it's easy to share information and best practices and figure out what's going on in your city throughout the state. So in that sense, people don't randomly move to a place. They generally move because they know somebody there or somebody told them that they should move here. So you don't tend to have a lot of families sort of one off in various locations. They tend to be clusters. There are Ukrainians.
Like I said, also, Chicago has a really big community. New York has a really big community. It's a big community in Western Florida. So I think we're the fifth largest. We're the fifth-largest Ukrainian community in the country. And what's really spectacular about that is think how big our population is compared to other states in the country. Ohio continues to hit above its weight in terms of number of refugees and immigrants coming to our state and living in our state, which makes it even more imperative that we as a whole recognize the value of that and create communities that effectively can support our newcomers because they're the ones paying taxes and putting kids in our schools and helping to offset population loss, for example, opening businesses.
And we see this also in the Ukrainian community. Lots of small businesses have opened that are Ukrainian founded in the last two years, similar with the traditional sort of immigrant narrative in that regard, because it's a lot easier to work for yourself in your own language than necessarily get a job at a different place where you don't speak the language. And so that's one reason a lot of people start their own businesses. And because we're a capitalist country, it's a lot easier here to start a business in many regards than many places where people come from. So it's actually an option, I think. Luda, anything you want to add there?
Lyudmyla Pinchuk:
I want to add, Ukrainians are really hardworking and dedicated people, and basically, they always look for jobs and give back to community, as Elizabeth saying, and pay taxes and help communities grow and employ their own and expand their businesses. And also, they are trying to learn English and feel like they belong. So now all ESL classes are full. You basically will not find any ESL class in Parma area, Cleveland area, which is open because Ukrainians are so trying to start a new life here and to learn language and to find better jobs and give back to community, which is really impressive. But we would really benefit from opening more ESL classes for adults.
Christina Grady-Watts:
And maybe we should just talk about that for the sake of people listening. So that's one of the opportunities that us together helps facilitate or those ESL classes. Do you want to talk a little bit about, if folks want to get involved in that, how they can do that?
Elizabeth Cusma:
Yeah. So we have a few opportunities. One, we have an ESL tutor for families or for individuals. So maybe you're not an ESL teacher. I totally understand that. What a lot of people need is that conversation experience in a safe place where you're not under pressure to get a bill paid. You can just have a conversation, or you can go over scripts of like, "I have to go to do this in a week. Can we practice how I'm actually going to do that?" So individual family or mentoring or individual mentoring is something individuals can do if that is of interest.
We also hold ESL classes for adults. We're starting a parent-child ESL class for people who don't have daycare because a lot of times moms need practice, but they have their kids with them. So we know intergenerational learning is actually more impactful. So this is also a great opportunity. So we hold those classes, and we also hold youth classes for just young people from ages eight to 18, and we divide those up into age groups. So we try very hard to meet this need with the resources we have, and then of course, are always looking for additional resources so that we can provide more classes because, like Luda said, we could hold class five days a week and have 30 people in a class every single day.
John Hambrick:
How is that in a public-school setting for your students? And then how is that then being reflected throughout the state for those student learners in our school systems?
Elizabeth Cusma:
Yeah. So really what Parma has done a great job of is sort of facilitating communication. So it's not that these students have never gone to school before, it's that they just don't know how to do it in English yet. So a mixture of immersion with supplemental help in Ukrainian is what they've kind of nailed in terms of having aides to help them, having counselors where they can go and process the trauma that they've experienced and are experiencing, communicating with families, helping families access resources that they need, having a language access plan at large in terms of how they handle international or ESL students. This has happened out of necessity in Parma. What's really great about that is other communities don't have to wait until they're inundated with people to learn how to do this. So there are school districts around the state who have done this really well, and working with the school districts who have done that well is a great opportunity for best practice sharing.
For example, I know we have some families in Orange, and Orange does not know... There hasn't been a lot of coordination at large on how to support these families, but they don't have to reinvent the wheel. There's a lot of resources, whether it's through districts here or districts in Seattle or districts in Minneapolis who are two great, great cities who have addressed language access in the school district setting. There are resources, and I know that teachers are the ones with the least amount of time to go out and seek, which is why this also is incumbent on leadership at the district level, or at least at the school level, to support our educators.
Christina Grady-Watts:
And speaking of support, for our folks listening, what would be a call to action for them? Or if you had listeners that were really wanting to make a tangible difference or support students or families from Ukraine, how can they do that?
Elizabeth Cusma:
So I have a couple of ways. Luda, do you want to chime in first?
Lyudmyla Pinchuk:
Yeah. Doesn't matter. You can go first. I can do... It's up to you.
Elizabeth Cusma:
Okay, okay. As unfun as it sounds, financial support of organizations like US Together is more impactful than you might imagine because it goes to support staff who do the work. So I know it doesn't always feel like it's a very direct way of helping because you don't get to actively participate in something. But the trickle-down effect of that cannot be underestimated. In terms of directly supporting, there's a few things. One, figure out what your school is doing, right? Vote for levies that support your school districts. Send your kids to public schools so that you have all the students in the district attending schools. Vote for elected officials who make this a part of their platform. Like I said, immigration benefits everybody in any community. And so making it a part of how you decide to run your city or district can make a huge, long-term impact on the health and wellbeing of your community.
If parents work in organizations that are hiring, reach out to organizations like us. Because we were at a job fair yesterday and we were told by all the people, all the employers there, "We don't want you to apply if you don't speak English." I understand not every job can be done by somebody who doesn't speak English. I also understand that there's a lot, somebody who doesn't speak English, but who is learning English, can contribute in a workplace environment. So to just straight out say, "You shouldn't apply if you don't speak English," in 2023 is just incredible to me. So whatever you do, whatever little circle of influence you have, don't forget that immigrants are part of our community, and make sure to include them in how you're thinking about shaping your little section and corner of the world.
Christina Grady-Watts:
That's great. Luda, do you have anything to add?
Lyudmyla Pinchuk:
I would like to say, speaking with parents, we figure out what are most challenging parts. So starting from the beginning, it's registration. If parents do not know English, it's really been a hassle for them because they have to find somebody who can help them, if they know somebody, or if they go to school, school not always will be able to help. And nowadays, you not even go to school. You have to apply online. So if parents are not computer savvy, they might not even know how to apply. So it would be really good if school would have some maybe documentation or steps written in native language. Not only Ukrainian, just in any most popular languages in Ohio, I would say. So people can go step by step and be able to register kids. If they come to us, they are lucky, be helping them, but if they don't know about our organization or similar ones, they might struggle with registration. So that's what I say. I would say every school should have bilingual stuff, which speak some other languages than English, just in case they need to help students to register.
Also, from parents' communication with school, parents' communication is going to challenge because most of the school communicates with parents through emails, which is in English. So if the parents do Google Translate, from my experience, it does not exactly say what was meant to be communicated in the first place. So it's also hard. And there's some apps which can help teach your parents communication, they translate it right to Ukrainian language, but it's not always correct.
So also, if ESL classes at school, kids do learn English very fast because they are faster learners than adults for sure. But ESL classes also could be extended, I would say, maybe even to parents, if that's possible, just to give them some basic English so they can understand. So I know many of our parents who have kids at school, they do learn with kids. When kids have homework, they do try helping them and learning English meanwhile. So also, I think improve culture awareness, not just around Ukrainians, but any nationality. So because, like Elizabeth said, Ukrainians, we are pretty close to American culture, but some people from different countries will be completely lost, if I may use this word.
Elizabeth Cusma:
Yeah. And so this also underscores the need for, like I said, a language access plan, contracting with services that provide interpreters or translators. This is actually how we started as an organization, as interpreters and translators. So that is a key component of the services we provide. So making sure that you have an interpreter line you can call, making sure you have somebody you can go to get documents translated within 48 hours. Things like that are just really critical to making sure you can get resources to families when families need them, as opposed to just having no idea what to do.
And so, like I said, at the district level, having administration understand what families need, how to access information in other languages, and that being built into how your district functions, which is relatively easy. You have a safety plan, you should have a language access plan. If you think of it that way, it's like, "Oh, of course, this makes sense," right? And it's also a way of attracting families to your district, right? If they know that they can be served and helped and the parents can go to the school for ESL classes, the weight that takes off of families is tremendous.
John Hambrick:
What a great conversation. And Elizabeth, I don't know of a school district that isn't being impacted by an increased diverse population. We don't have Californians moving to Ohio. We have everybody else moving to Ohio, including-
Elizabeth Cusma:
Dublin. Dublin, Ohio is a great example of a very really white community that is now extremely multicultural, for example.
John Hambrick:
That's right. That's right. So I love that language access plan, really. And so any of the resources that you have, we'll be putting together on our podcast link. And Luda, you had mentioned a couple of, also maybe some translator apps, some of the things that you've been using within your community through US Together, please share that and then we will have that accessible to our listeners to be able to use for reference and potential implementation.
This has just been just a very insightful and educational conversation. I'd like to again, thank Elizabeth Cusma, the site director for US Together of Cleveland and a senior case manager with US Together, Luda Pinchuk, also the Ukrainian Community Liaison. So alongside myself and co-host, Christina Grady-Watts, we sure appreciate this conversation around education, workforce, and our current events that are affecting us here in Ohio. So thanks for tuning in, and we certainly look forward to talking with you again soon. Bye-bye.