Boise, ID & Salt Lake City, UT: Forging an Innovative, Inter-State Collaboration with SIIP
After decades of welcoming newcomers to their programs, Idaho’s Global Talent and Utah’s One Refugee determined that a collaborative approach to immigrant and refugee workforce inclusion would bolster their efforts in the region. They joined the WES Skilled Immigrant Integration Program (SIIP) in 2018 as co-leads of a cohort including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah and the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Center in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Idaho and Utah have immigrant populations of 93,330 and 272,000 respectively, comprising 5.2 and 8.5 percent of their state populations. Utah has been a significant refugee resettlement site since the 1980s, but in 2016, restrictive federal policies sharply cut arrivals to the region. This made workforce development programming for specific communities – like internationally trained immigrants and refugees – impracticable at the local level.
In both states, systemic barriers limited immigrant and refugee workforce inclusion: More than 21% of Idaho’s 13,400 college-educated immigrants are unemployed or underemployed; in Utah, 33.2% of 46,900 internationally trained individuals face the same challenges. For Global Talent and One Refugee, regional collaboration presented both a viable means of serving internationally educated immigrants and refugees, and of expanding the talent pool for local employers. SIIP presented the perfect opportunity to convene stakeholders across state lines.
Interstate Innovation and Collaboration
In September 2018, the Boise and Salt Lake City partners worked with SIIP to organize convenings in each city. The cohort’s goal was to build local support of internationally trained immigrants and refugees and awareness of the barriers that drive their unemployment and underemployment. Assistance from the widely respected National Skills Coalition, a SIIP technical assistance provider, drew interest from a variety of local sectors, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This influential stakeholder in Utah decided to join the SIIP cohort and effectively bolstered the partners’ reach across the region.
Following the convening, Global Talent was awarded a three-year Refugee Career Pathways grant through the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The funding allowed the Boise-based organization to establish a presence in Salt Lake City in collaboration with One Refugee, with programming focused on providing workforce development services. In addition, the funding enabled the partners to expand coaching services in Twin Falls, Idaho, a refugee resettlement hub located halfway between Boise and Salt Lake City. “SIIP was a turning point for the partnership between Global Talent and One Refugee,” said a SIIP cohort participant.
Because the number of newcomers settling in the region remained low, the partners expanded eligibility for services to include college students from refugee and immigrant backgrounds. The partners developed productive connections with local employers even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed participants to access jobs and internships across both states. “Internship opportunities between Idaho and Utah have bloomed,” said a representative of the local SIIP cohort. “We thought we’d see a downturn during COVID, but actually, it has provided more opportunities for students to intern remotely.”
Partners have also observed an increased awareness of the unique needs of internationally educated refugees, marking an important shift in case management at local refugee resettlement agencies. Whereas federal mandates incentivize refugee job placement as quickly as possible, local staff are now more likely to recognize clients’ professional and educational backgrounds. “If a professional arrives with limited English and needs a survival job, the agencies now understand that, yes, they need to help them get that ‘survival job’ – but they also need to help them build their English and get back on their career pathway,” said a SIIP cohort member.
Looking Ahead in the Intermountain West
Global Talent and One Refugee expect that their field building work and employer connections will continue to benefit the region, as more immigrants and refugees settle in Idaho and Utah. Their SIIP experience was instrumental in cementing their partnership far beyond the conclusion of their cohort year – and in building their ability to engage a broad array of stakeholders. Now alumni, the partners’ involvement with the SIIP network has continued to grow, with presentations at SIIP convenings, participation in SIIP working groups, and networking with peers and national providers.
“It’s so helpful to have partners across the country that I can just send a quick email to and get their thoughts on something,” said a SIIP cohort participant. “Going back and presenting and participating in those meetings has enabled us to continue the conversations and build those relationships even further.”
With support from SIIP, Boise and Salt Lake City have built a partnership that is transforming the region’s approach to immigrant and refugee workforce inclusion, along with the local economy. Learn how your community can participate in a future SIIP cohort.
