As the United States prepares to celebrate the country’s workers on Labor Day, a Virginia life plan community hosted an employment workshop to support Afghan refugees entering the American workforce.
After learning from its community partners that Northern Virginia was an Afghan refugee resettlement area, Goodwin Living hosted the workshop in June at Goodwin House Alexandria, to help local refugees on their journey toward employment and integrating into the US job market.
The event was designed to provide Afghan refugees with the practical skills and knowledge necessary to navigate the wider US workforce. Topics focused on potential career paths, digital literacy, American workplace norms and entry-level roles as stepping stones toward achieving long-term career goals.
“By providing attendees with hands-on and one-on-one coaching, Goodwin Living was able to empower the attendees to set realistic goals for becoming job-ready and to learn how to best search for job opportunities,” Goodwin Living Talent Acquisition Manager Nathalia Salvatierra told McKnight’s Senior Living.
Salvatierra, an immigrant herself, led the workshop. Christ Church Refugee Ministry of Alexandria was Goodwin Living’s primary partner for the event. Women for Afghan Women, which provides services, education and vocational training for its clients across Afghanistan and in the United States, also partnered on the workshop.
Sixteen attendees received help with resume editing, online job applications and general job search processes. Goodwin Living hired one of the participants, whereas the others were connected to additional organizations with open positions.
Goodwin Living Chief of Staff Holly Hanisian and Goodwin Living Chief People Officer Fran Casey told McKnight’s Senior Living that the organization is open to holding additional workshops for other groups based on the needs of its community partners.
The effort fell under the umbrella of the organization’s US Citizenship Program at Goodwin Living, which covers the US citizenship application costs for employees of Goodwin Living, a senior living and healthcare organization that manages life plan communities offering multiple levels of living, including independent living, assisted living, memory care and skilled nursing, along with a home care program and a range of other healthcare services, including home health, rehabilitation and hospice.
The Goodwin Living Foundation has a staff support fund that covers tuition, emergency financial support and citizenship expenses, thanks to donations from residents, staff and community members. Goodwin Living residents also are part of the program, volunteering to help refugees by tutoring staff members studying for their citizenship exams.
The citizenship program has created a diverse workforce of 1,200 employees representing 68 countries. Today, Goodwin Living has supported 142 employees and 18 of their family members in becoming US citizens.
The operator also created the Goodwin Living Citizenship Playbook, available for download, for organizations looking to start their own citizenship programs.
Afghan resettlement programs in senior living
Other senior living providers have been working with immigrants on everything from housing to skills training.
Last year, Westminster Communities of Florida contacted Lutheran Social Services, the local resettlement agency, to inquire about partnering to fold Afghan refugees into its open positions.
Westminster provided jobs and supportive housing to a number of Afghan refugees in its five continuing care retirement communities in Florida. Afghan refugees have been placed in positions ranging from human resources to housekeeping to dining services to maintenance.
Trinity Woods in Tulsa, OK, partnered with local churches and Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma in late 2021 in an Afghan resettlement program to house 800 Afghans in the Tulsa area.
The families, which included individuals who assisted members of the US Armed Forces, were selected by the US government to come to the United States in 2021 after the country withdrew from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover.
Trinity Woods, which bought up properties in an adjacent neighborhood, offered use of those houses to temporarily house families until they could move to stabilized housing.
