Catholic groups use ‘social innovation’ to help refugees

In the time it takes you to read this article, around 100 people around the world will be forced to leave their homes because of persecution, war or violence. In fact, more people are displaced today than at any time in human history – some 65 million, of whom 22 million are classified as refugees, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Not only that, but most refugees are not returning home anytime soon, if ever. Displaced people today need more than a short-term place to live until their homeland crisis is over. Rather than living in camps for almost a generation, refugees need permanent resettlement and the skills to become self-reliant in their new homes.

What is needed is innovative solutions to deal with what some – including Pope Francis and many bishops – call the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time.

But “innovative” does not always mean a new agency or even a new program. In fact, according to a recently released report on the Catholic response to this problem, many church-run organizations and programs are creatively serving refugees and migrants, without having to start from scratch.

“You can make institutions and organizations that have been around for a long time truly creative in responding to pressing social issues,” said Tiziana Dearing, Co-Director of Boston College’s Center for Social Innovation and Senior Researcher for “Catholic Social Innovation in the Current Global Refugee Crisis. “

The study was funded by Foundations and donors interested in Catholic activities (FADICA) to give more visibility to programs that may not be seen as obvious “social innovators” by other donors, as they are run by an institution that is over 2,000 years old.

“There is a perception that an institution that already exists is not likely to be innovative,” Dearing said. “But a lot of innovation can come from existing communities and infrastructure.”

Catholic social innovation tends to reallocate existing resources and leverage existing relationships to address issues such as the refugee crisis, the study found. Innovative Catholic programs also draw inspiration from Catholic social education, according to the report, which highlighted 64 projects, more than half of which are affiliated with Catholic sisters.

One is the training and skills centers run by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in Tunisia.

Many African and Middle Eastern migrants trying to reach Europe found themselves stranded in Tunisia, located in the far north of Africa. Without marketable skills, they often turn to illegal exploitative work, said Sr. Mary Louise Stubbs, executive director of the order’s International Project Services, which provides development assistance to sisters working in 64 countries.

Local Daughters of Charity were already providing emergency aid in Tunisia, but realized that migrants needed to learn skills that could provide an income to support their families. Thus, in addition to providing medical care and education for children, the sisters began to provide training in sewing, welding, hairdressing, shoemaking, breadmaking and computers for adults.

Dearing said the training program exemplifies two trends in innovative refugee services: a focus on self-reliance and what is called a “two-generation” approach that targets entire families.

But its innovation goes further. When Stubbs learned that the Ladies of Charity, a group associated with the Daughters of Charity, were looking for new ways to raise funds for their charitable work, she remembered the beautiful backpack made by one of the refugees. of the Tunisian training program.

Stubbs helped set up a collaboration to create the “Mission Marketplace,” where the Ladies of Charity will buy items made by refugees in Tunisia in bulk for resale in the United States.

“Innovation could be our middle name,” Stubbs said, noting that the Daughters of Charity have had to get creative since their founding in the 17th century.

Dearing agrees that sisters, as well as priests and brothers, were among the first social innovators. “We have a long history of nuns who establish hospitals, orphanages, schools and other services. They have always been at the forefront of transformational social justice,” she said.

Other projects highlighted in the report exhibit similar collaboration, long-term focus, and a creative reorientation of existing relationships or resources:

• In Pennsylvania, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth left their home and consolidated with other sisters so that the building could be used as a transitional facility for resettled refugees, reallocating an existing resource and demonstrating what Dearing called ” radical hospitality ”.

• In Australia, 155 religious orders of sisters, brothers and priests have worked together to prevent the trafficking of refugees and others through the Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans, or ACRATH.

• In Bolivia and Chile, the Good Shepherd Sisters have tackled a root cause of migration by providing vocational training to women at risk of becoming migrants. All the women found jobs, preventing more than half from leaving.

“We see what happens when you have a network and an infrastructure of a global institution, united by shared faith and values, capable of responding to a problem on a global scale,” said Dearing.

This report is the first of the three-year project. FADICA members, who have chosen refugees as their topic for the first year, will vote on the next issue for consideration, said Alexia Kelley, President and CEO of FADICA.

Kelley hopes the project will draw attention to the good work of these Catholic organizations. “A lot of times the sisters, brothers and priests don’t brag about being so busy doing the job,” she said.

And she agrees that sometimes the assumption is that “faith-based” cannot be modern and innovative. “But we knew it wasn’t,” Kelley said.

Dearing also hopes those who believe in and invest in social innovation will take a closer look at organizations run by the church. “I think they will be inspired by innovation to welcome the stranger and meet the needs of those around us,” she said.

“We are at a time when we need inspiration,” she said. “And it’s incredibly inspiring.”

[Heidi Schlumpf is NCR national correspondent. Her email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @HeidiSchlumpf.]