{"id":5192,"date":"2010-10-27T11:24:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T16:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/2010\/10\/27\/first-thursday-program-to-address-growing-immigrant-and-refugee-populations\/"},"modified":"2015-11-23T13:38:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T18:38:26","slug":"first-thursday-program-to-address-growing-immigrant-and-refugee-populations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/first-thursday-program-to-address-growing-immigrant-and-refugee-populations\/","title":{"rendered":"First Thursday Program to Address Growing Immigrant and Refugee Populations"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Immigrants and refugees make up one of the fastest growing groups in the country. With the demographic landscape in the United States and Massachusetts changing rapidly, social workers must prepare to work with new and growing communities. The School of Social Work Alumni Association will address this topic in its upcoming First Thursday Program, \u201cThe Changing Faces of Social Work: Understanding the Socio-Political Context of Working with Newcomers.\u201d\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n

The program will provide an overview of facts and figures about immigrant and refugee groups in the United States and Massachusetts. Alumni Carly Burton (MSW ’04)<\/strong> and Eric Kamba (MSW ’04, MPH ’05)<\/strong>, will discuss the application of social work to newcomer populations and their own work with immigrants and refugees. They will also cover the key different immigrant statuses and the subject of immigration reform.<\/p>\n

Burton has worked closely with immigrant and refugee populations in Massachusetts. She joined the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition upon graduation, and as the director of operations at MIRA, Burton worked to further social and economic justice for marginalized immigrant populations in the state.<\/p>\n

Currently, Burton is the director of strategic development for the Massachusetts Council of Human Services Providers. She is also treasurer of the Board of Directors of the Haymarket People\u2019s Fund, an anti-racist and multi-cultural foundation committed to strengthening the movement for social justice in New England.<\/p>\n

An immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kamba brings a unique perspective to the program. As the refugee health assessment program administrator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Kamba educates the hospital\u2019s staff on cultural awareness. He ensures refugee and immigrant families\u2019 basic needs are met and promotes their long term connection to primary care.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy background in social work has helped me to be more sensitive and empathetic to refugee and immigrant issues,\u201d Kamba said. \u201dAs an immigrant myself, I am able to understand problems from the immigrants\u2019 and refugees\u2019 perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kamba is a stanch advocate for immigrant and refugee populations in Massachusetts. Working with resettlement agencies and community partners, he is helping to develop new Refugee and Immigrant Health Program Initiatives that will establish strategic connections between refugee and immigrant communities and other agencies.<\/p>\n

In addition, Kamba is the executive director at the Congolese Development Center (CDC) in Lynn, a nonprofit organization that provides services to African refugee communities in the state. The CDC also works at a national level, networking with NGOs, universities, the United Nations and various African governments to increase awareness of the issues affecting African refugees in America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Changing Faces of Social Work\u201d First Thursday Program will be held on Thursday, November 4<\/strong> from 7 to 8:30 p.m.<\/strong> at the College of Arts and Sciences, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, room 237. Please RSVP to Kathleen Lopes at kalopes@bu.edu or 617-353-5607.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Immigrants and refugees make up one of the fastest growing groups in the country. With the demographic landscape in the United States and Massachusetts changing rapidly, social workers must prepare to work with new and growing communities. The School of Social Work Alumni Association will address this topic in its upcoming First Thursday Program, \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7435,4057],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5192"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23961,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5192\/revisions\/23961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ssw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}