Refugee services tracking system and Georgia refugee community blog 2009-2010

REFUGEE SERVICES TRACKING
SYSTEM
&
GEORGIA REFUGEE COMMUNITY
BLOG

The DHS Refugee Services Tracking System was first developed in 1998 on the Paradox platform then migrated to the Microsoft Access platform in 2002. It has two major components, the "State Database" and "Agency Database". This document will provide an analysis of the DHS Refugee Services Tracking System, dependant data sources, federal and AD-HOC reports produced; and how they are used to monitor, evaluate and track the services provided by the Refugee Programs Unit and its contracted service providers.
The State Refugee Database is designed to collect service and biographical data on existing and newly arrived refugees. The (Agency Database) is provided to contracted service providers as a tool to collect vital information on refugees such as name, alien number, and social security number, date of birth, country of origin, entry status, and gender. The database is structured to meet the requirements of the Service Provision Guidelines of the Refugee Programs Unit and ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement). The State Refugee Database offers flexibility and adaptability to meet the needs of the refugee community and can be modified as needed to meet new federal guidelines.

2009-2010 SERVICE ANALYSIS
Funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
Georgia Department of Human Services

Several months prior to a new contract year, budgets are determined and allocated by the Refugee Programs Unit and then submitted in the form of a renewal contract to the service provider. Once the contracts are reviewed and signed off by the service provider(s) and the Department of Human Services, the service providers designate and submit how many units and dollar amounts will be used for each of the services they are contracted to provide. This information is then entered into the State Database Contract Master. In addition to entering dollar/unit amounts in the Contract Master, the funding source information Social Services Grant (SSG) and/or Targeted Assistance Grant (TAG) is entered according to the appropriate service. After each contract is entered into the State Database, an Agency Database is created and sent to the appropriate service provider. Figures 1 and 2 are examples of how the main menu of the Agency Database and the Contract Master may appear to the contracted service provider.

Division of Family & Children Services

Refugee Programs Unit

Figure 1 Main Menu Figure 2 Contract Master

State Refugee Database:
The database is an important application for the contracted service providers and is used on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and assists the contracted agencies in managing their budgets and expenditures. It is also used as a performance measurement tool by the State of Georgia.
Assists contractors in tracking services such as; Employment, Employment Upgrade, English Language Instruction, Information & Referral, Interpretation & Translation, and Citizenship, Social Adjustment Services such as; the Refugee Youth and Domestic Violence programs.
Provides easy to read reports.

Figure 3 Client Master

Figure 3 is a sample of the Client Master which is accessed by selecting the Client Data button on the Main Menu. This is where the service provider enters a client's biographical data, household information, resettlement information, service and billing information. Each Tab or (back page) on the Client Master has an associated form where the service provider can enter additional information and track the applicable service provided to a client. It is critical that these back pages be filled out completely as required in the Refugee Database Tracking Manual; since the information contained in the required fields is used to measure the success and/or failures of the services provided to a client in the Performance Expectation Outcome Report.

From the Reports Menu (Figure 4) the service provider can:
1. Produce a Client List by Name or by Case Worker for a particular time period to see who, what, or when a service was provided
2. Produce an Invoice for a particular time period. 3. Produce a 90 day or 1 Year Employment Report 4. Produce a Needs Assessment Payment List 5. Produce an ESL- Attendance report for a particular
time period 6. Produce a Youth-Attendance report 7. Produce Year To Date Counts/Goals
Figure 4 Reports

The Client Master also contains the service log which is used monthly by the service provider to generate an invoice that is electronically submitted via e-mail to the Refugee Programs Unit and then imported to the State Database. Once the data is imported to the State Database an automated confirmation is sent via e-mail to the service provider alerting them that their monthly invoice data was imported. In addition, if any bugs were identified and fixed prior to the end of a billing cycle, a new database update/install would be created and distributed via encrypted e-mail to all contracted service providers affected.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System & Blog 2009 2010 Service Analysis Page 2 of 7

From the main menu of the Agency Database, (Figure 5) Figure 5 Main Menu
the Agency can perform the following functions:

Monthly Narratives

Each one of the services has a Monthly and Trimester Narrative that must be submitted at it's appropriate due date.

In this menu the service provider enters information on a particular program, it successes, failures, challenges, the number of people served during a particular month and collective goals whether achieved or not achieved.

Trimester Narratives

This section is where the service provider enters information on a particular program during a 4 month period and whether collective goals were achieved or not. This information is critical, since it is used to produce the ORR-6 Trimester report which gets submitted to ORR.

Performance Outcomes

This menu will produce a detailed Performance Outcome Report for each program; it will display each client served, the date, day, and individual goal information and also provide an overall summary for each program and service.
Database Security
All database updates are sent to our contracted service providers in a password protected compressed file. Once the Service Provider receives the update the authorized database supervisor must enter the password twice, once when decompressing, then once after they execute the update.
Hardware/Software Requirements: The database can be run on a standalone PC or in a Server environment to allow multiple users to perform data entries simultaneously.
Platform PC-Based system Windows 2000 or higher Access 2000 or 2003 (Access higher than
2003, not tested) Word 2000 or higher WinZip (registered version) Email clients (GroupWise, Outlook,
Outlook Express)

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System Data Sources
The data sources below serve as a supplement to the State Database, the data compiled is then incorporated into the annual reports the State Refugee Programs Unit submits to ORR and does not impact the Agency Database that service providers receive.
SUCCESS
The SUCCESS Db provides information on refugees receiving Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA), Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) or both in the state of Georgia. Success also provides Secondary Migration data pertaining to refugees who have come to Georgia after being previously resettled in another state.
The Georgia Refugee Health Program
Provides first, second and third trimester medical screening information.
WRAPS: (Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System)
Provides monthly Refugee/SIV's (Special Immigrant Visa Arrivals) arrival data such as; alien registration number, name, Country of origin, Date of birth, gender and sponsoring Volunteer Agency (VOLAG) name.
Multi-County Refugee Resettlement Unit
Provides annual Refugee Status Data on Refugee's who are classified as SIV's, Asylee or Parolee.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System & Blog 2009 2010 Service Analysis Page 3 of 7

State Refugee Database Built-In and Customized (AdHoc) Reports
Report: ORR-6 TRIMESTER
Description: ORR uses data gathered from the ORR-6 report to determine the number of months of Refugee Cash Assistance (RCA) and Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA) use based on Appropriations. State-by-State, RCA and RMA utilization rates derived from the ORR-6 are calculated for use in formulating program initiatives, priorities, standards, budget requests, and assistance policies.
Medical Screening data is used in the Annual Report to Congress to document the number of newly arrived refugees and other eligible populations accessing medical screenings during the year.
Data Type: RCA, RMA, Medical Screenings
Source: Success database, Georgia Refugee Health Program
Report: OMB Data Collection (formerly ORR-11)
Description: ORR requires that States providing refugee social services submit secondary migration data on refugees and entrants served who arrived in the U.S. during a 5-year period. The State is also responsible to submit at this time, Social Services (SSG) data on Asylees & Entrants who they served for a 3 year period as well as, TAG (Targeted Assistance Grant) recipient data for Asylees & Entrant that were served during a specified 5 year period.
Data Type: Asylee/Parolee, Entrant, Secondary Migration data.
Source: Multi County Refugee Resettlement Unit/DFCS, VOLAGS (Volunteer Agencies), Community Based Organizations, DHS Refugee Services Tracking System (State and Agency database)
Report: Annual Outcome Goal Plan/Annual Service Plan
Description: The Annual Outcome Goal Plan report, measures employment and employability services, delivered goals, actual and projected goals of a state to provide employment to refugees. This report measured employment caseloads, unduplicated number of refugees who entered employment, Cash Assistance Recipients Placed in Jobs,

Number of Federal Cash Assistance (TANF, RCA) terminations, reductions, full time employment offering health benefits, wage and job retention results.
The Annual Service Plan reflects the current services provided to refugees in the State and the total dollar amount used by Georgia to provide services to the eligible service population from the following ORR funding sources: the social service formula program, the formula targeted assistance program (TAP), the targeted assistance discretionary grant, and other discretionary grants.
Data Type: All Data
Source: State Refugee Database, Agency Database
Report (s): Ad-Hoc (customized, user defined)
Description: An Ad-Hoc report is a highly customized report that is created by Query wizard or SQL script in MS Access. A database query extracts and combines data from various tables and fields from single or multiple sources, then manipulates and transforms the data into meaningful and useful reports that analyzes a specific aspect of the Refugee Program.
Data Type: All data
Source: DHS Refugee Tracking System
Fixes/Enhancements- 2009 Database vs. 2010 Database:
Through increased training, user feed back, more frequent site visits the DHS Refugee Services Tracking System is a more stable and user friendly database. In addition to the above, the feasibility of elevating the DHS Refugee Tracking System to a web-based system is being explored.

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System & Blog 2009 2010 Service Analysis Page 4 of 7

The State Refugee Database contains

Guinea

94

demographic information on every Refugee that

Haiti Honduras

146 2

has received a service, with records going as far

Hong Kong

2

back as 2000. As of the end of Fiscal Year 2010

India

6

this number was 25,875 individual Refugees.

Indonesia

8

Iran

740

Information collected includes Gender, Date of

Iraq

1510

Birth, Date of Entry, Nation of Origin, Alien

Iraq-Saudi Arabia, Neutral Zone

328

Number, Social Security Number and Address.

Israel

7

Over 119 Nations and Regions are represented

Ivory Coast Jordan

33 2

with high concentrations from Somalia, Bhutan,

Kazakhstan

7

Burma, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Vietnam and

Kenya

35

Sudan. For a breakdown by Nation of Origin see

North Korea South Korea

5 1

Table 1.

Kosovo

83

Kurdistan

56

In addition to the data collected regarding

Kuwait Kyrgyzstan

26 1

Refugees, data is also collected on the Services

Laos

16

they are provided. In FY 2010 22,349 Services

Latvia

4

were provided to the Refugees in Georgia. The

Lebanon Liberia

11 1000

Database also contains information on the

Libya

14

Services of past years. Data collected on

Lithuania

4

119,940 total services (including FY 2010) are

Malawi

1

Malaysia

2

stored within.

Mali

2

Mauritania

59

Mexico

14

Nations of Origin Table 1

Moldova

248

Morocco

1

Nepal

53

Nicaragua

1

Country of Origin Afghanistan Angola Antigua Armenia Azerbaijan Bangladesh Belarus Benin Bhutan
Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Bulgaria
Burkina Faso (Uvolta) Burma Burundi
Cambodia Cameroon Central African Republic
Chad China Colombia Congo Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Democratic Republic of Congo Djibouti Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eritrea Ethiopia French Guiana Gabon Gambia Gaza Strip Georgia East Germany Ghana Grenada

Number 551 8 1 7 19 4 10 1 2104 1724 1 3 9 1 2968 512 23 109 25 9 59 378 412 2 86 820 260 1 8 9 4 565 1848 1 5 28 17 5 3 12 1

Niger Nigeria Pakistan Palestine
Peru Philippines
Poland Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Solomon Islands Somalia Sri Lanka Sudan
Syria Tajikstan Tanzania Thailand
Togo Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vanuata Venezuela Vietnam West Bank Yemen Yugoslavia Zaire Zambia Zimbabwe

2 128 32
4 5 2 3 2 4 790 91 1 7 21 1 244 1 1 3552 24 1212 18 5 13 38 108 8 5 4 9 264 1 396 3 43 2602 1 1 70 2 8 18

Guatemala

7

DHS Refugee Services Tracking System & Blog 2009 2010 Service Analysis Page 5 of 7

The Service data contained in the State Refugee Database falls into one of 10 categories:
English Language Instruction Employment Employment Upgrade Needs Assessment Social Adjustment Citizenship & Naturalization Information & Referral Interpretation & Translation Youth Services Other (Support Groups & Family
Education)
For the FY 2010, there were Services provided to 5,361 individual Refugees within all Service categories. Some Refugees had more than one type of Service. The Service that was utilized most by individual Refugees was English Language Instruction (ELI), followed closely by Social Adjustment. Chart 1 shows the unduplicated client numbers within each Service Category for FY 2010. Chart 2 details the total Services provided for FY 2010 (duplicated for some clients) and ELI is once again the Service provided most.
The Database also contains records of Services from the past 10 years. The number of total Services documented within the Database through the end of FY 2010 is 119,935. These Services were for 16,838 individual Refugees.
Chart 3 shows the distinct Refugees within each Service Category for the entire Database with Social Adjustment, Citizenship and Naturalization, ELI, Information and Referral, Employment and Needs Assessments having the most clients.
Chart 4 shows the total number of Services provided. These numbers will reflect the fact that several Service Categories will have multiple service entries for an individual Refugee, most notably ELI and Youth Services. The Service Categories with the most total Service entries are ELI, Social Adjustment, Employment, Information and Referral, Youth Services and Citizenship and Naturalization.

Chart 1 Chart 2 Chart 3

Chart 4 DHS Refugee Services Tracking System & Blog 2009 2010 Service Analysis Page 6 of 7

Georgia Refugee Community Blog
2010 brought the creation of a new Website dedicated to promoting Refugee interests and helping the Refugee Community organize and communicate better. The Georgia Refugee Community blog (www.garefugees.wordpress.com) on Wordpress is the official website of the Georgia Coalition of Refugee Stakeholders. It is administered by the Refugee Programs Unit which works closely with Stakeholders to provide relevant information to organizations and clients on a timely basis.
New Events, Announcements, Newsletters and Open Programs are posted as well as having pages listing the Stakeholder Community, the State Refugee Teams and Resources that might be of assistance to the Refugees. Each Category has its own tab which is easily accessed from the home page.
The Home page (see Image 1) contains a greeting message encouraging submissions and comments, a section listing all the new posts that have been made recently and what tab they are located on and a listing of official websites for the Refugee Stakeholders.
The About the Coalition page (see Image 2) lists the Core Mission, Purpose and Guiding Principles of the Coalition. This page also contains a listing of the members of the Coalition with a short paragraph about each in addition to address, phone number and URL (see Image 3). Minutes from previous meetings of the Coalition are posted as well.
The State Refugee Program page (see Image 4) lists the Team members of the Refugee Program, the Refugee Health Program and the Multi-County Refugee Resettlement Unit. Some official State and Federal Health Documents can be downloaded from this page via hyperlinks.
The Resources page (see Image 5) contains downloads and links to various materials that may be of help to Refugees. Guidebooks for new Refugees translated into multiple languages, instructions on applying for Citizenship and preparing for the Naturalization test are among some of the resources available to Refugees and Organizations.
The Georgia Refugee Community blog will continue to look for new and improved means of providing the Refugee Community with better information and communication in the future. Suggestions and insight from the Community at large is appreciated and considered in the hopes that the Blog will one day be the main venue of interaction between all members of the Refugee Community.
RECOMMENDATIONS: Translate all documents and postings into the 5-10 major Refugee languages so that the website will be more helpful to the individual clients. Add more downloadable forms to the Resources page so that the website will provide more value to the Agencies serving the Community. Transition away from the ListServ as the main form of inter-Coalition communication and use the Blog as the primary form.

Image 1 Image 2 Image 3 Image 4

Image 5 DHS Refugee Services Tracking System & Blog 2009 2010 Service Analysis Page 7 of 7