Jessie Mabry: [00:00:00] There are many different pathways to come into the U. S. And one is the refugee resettlement pathway. In order to become a refugee, someone has to be fleeing a well founded fear of persecution because of their membership in a particular social class. That's a legal definition. So a particular social class could be An ethnic minority, it could be a member of a political party, could be a woman, depending on the context.
By the time a refugee arrives in the United States, they've gone through an extensive, sometimes four or five year long vetting and screening process. Refugees are actually the most highly vetted traveler to the United States out of all the different kinds of travelers that you might have, student visas, tourist visas, et cetera.
Jeff Holden: I'm Jeff Holden. Welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network, our purpose [00:01:00] and passion. Is to highlight a nonprofit organization in each weekly episode. Giving that organization an opportunity to tell their story in their words to better inform and educate the respective communities they serve, as well as provide one more tool for them to share their message to constituents and donors.
Our goal is to help build stronger communities through shared voices and to both encourage and support the growth of local nonprofit organizations. through podcasting. Thanks to our founding partners for their foresight in helping us transform the way conversations start. CAP Trust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations.
Runyon Saltzman Incorporated, RSE, marketing, advertising, and public relations creating integrated communications committed to improving lives. And Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families. I want you to think about something for a moment. It's a feeling I'd like you [00:02:00] to evoke.
Maybe even an image. It could be from grammar or high school, but you'll get it when I explain. There was something you wanted to be a part of. Maybe picking sides for a team of some sort, or a club you wanted to join. Maybe it was just to be a part of the cool kids. Remember that anxiety? Maybe even the feeling of rejection if you didn't get chosen?
Possibly the fear of getting picked, and then what? That can be a terrifying experience. Now add in the fact that maybe it was a new experience for you with all new people in a new neighborhood. You're starting to get a visceral sense of it all? Pretty uncomfortable for me as I reminisce about my own personal situations when that would occur.
Now take that sense and imagine it in a completely foreign country. In a different language and culture and maybe even belief system. And you're not alone. You're with your family that you're responsible for. Worse yet, you may be running from a group as opposed to wanting to be involved with them. [00:03:00] It's even possible you were taken unwillingly and now you've been recovered, as in a human trafficking situation.
This is what many of our immigrants and refugees are faced with every single day. Can you imagine the relief of finding there is someplace you can go to get the support in your own language with people who understand your culture, your faith, your traditions? Well, that's what this episode of the nonprofit podcast is going to address.
I'm speaking with Jesse Mabry, CEO of Opening Doors, an organization that supports our immigrants on their journey to self sufficiency in our community. No stranger herself to the nonprofit space, Jesse has served with the Peace Corps and held leadership roles in a variety of nonprofit and social service agencies.
That represented concerns all over the world. She's now been with Opening Doors for over five years and is about to share with us the significance of what this over 30 year old organization has represented to those in our region to provide stability. and a sense of belonging. Jessi Mabry, welcome to the Nonprofit Podcast Network.[00:04:00]
Jessie Mabry: Thank you so much for having me. I'm happy to be here.
Jeff Holden: And we're happy to have you. You know, many of the organizations that we talk with have a name that's really descriptive of the organization. Yours, Opening Doors, is very visual, but not necessarily descriptive to the mission and purpose of what the organization does.
Sure,
Jessie Mabry: sure.
Jeff Holden: Can you tell us, give us a little history, about the organization and what it is you do.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah, we got started in 1993 as an outreach ministry of a local church that was walking alongside newly arriving refugees. At that time, folks were coming here from the former Soviet Union and that sort of volunteer group worked together for about 10 years and then incorporated as a 501c3 in the early 2000s.
And that's when we got our official name of Opening Doors. And, you know, I like to think about it in a couple of different ways. One is, you know, opening doors to new opportunities, right? Opening doors to the next steps on the journey of immigrants, [00:05:00] refugees, and survivors of trafficking. And I also think about it in terms of neighbor welcoming neighbor and opening doors to our, to our neighbors.
Jeff Holden: Sure. Here you are in the neighborhood. Let's bring some cookies or a greeting of some sort. And either open our doors to or, or your door to us.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: Who are these new people?
Jessie Mabry: Absolutely. In
Jeff Holden: so many ways too. In over 30 years, you've been serving a, a large constituent. And I would imagine that once it got started and the word was out about the organization and the help that you provided, it connected with the immigrants and the refugees from, from the source.
So. Mm hmm. You said predominantly from Russia initially?
Jessie Mabry: At that time, yeah. In the early days.
Jeff Holden: Who is it you see today coming across?
Jessie Mabry: Right. So over our 30 year history, we've welcomed folks from different parts of the world. Sort of as, as conflicts break out in other countries that forces people to seek safety and eventually they end up here in Northern California.
Today and for the past few [00:06:00] years, we've been welcoming predominantly Afghan refugees coming to the U. S. since the Taliban has taken over. Our sort of our second largest group would probably be Ukrainians coming here because of the war in Ukraine. And then we also see a really large number of folks from sort of the Northern Triangle countries, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela is coming.
We're seeing that more and more frequently as well. We do see other nationalities. As well, but those are probably the most common right today.
Jeff Holden: Understood perfectly from the standpoint of the conflicts in a lot of those countries. Right. What about the change if you've seen a change or have you seen a change pre pandemic to post pandemic?
Jessie Mabry: Mm hmm. Well, Afghanistan and Ukraine all sort of happened around the same time that that was happening. I don't know that we've seen necessarily a, that the results of the [00:07:00] pandemic had any influence on the particular populations that we are welcoming, but I think we did see that the populations that, that we are working with were impacted by the pandemic just the same way as many other low income communities.
So in the first. you know, six weeks of the pandemic. A lot of the folks that we work with lost their jobs or couldn't work because their kids were home from school. So they were impacted in that way. And then, you know, moving forward, I think the, we've really seen this increasing challenges in the housing market across, you know, across the country, but really in this area as well.
And so the populations that we serve have been really impacted by that as well.
Jeff Holden: Roughly 3, 700 people served last year is how many people you work with. That's an enormous number of people. What does the organization look like? How do you accommodate that many people?
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. Our organization is I mean, I'm [00:08:00] biased admittedly, but
Jeff Holden: our staff,
Jessie Mabry: our staff are just amazing, dedicated, committed members of their communities.
You know, cultural competency, linguistic competency is really foundational to our work. So we have a staff of a little over 70 and together we speak more than a dozen languages. And, you know, it. It takes a lot of work. I like to say if we were a taco truck wanting to make the very best tacos, we'd buy organic vine ripened tomatoes and we'd make our own tortillas, but we're a human services organization and the quality input is our staff.
That is how we deliver on the mission and our staff really do an amazing job.
Jeff Holden: Let's talk a little bit about that, that mission and the scope of service. Because it's really broad, really broad, and you're not only immigrants but refugees, trafficked people as well. And, and sometimes you think, well, those, how do those go [00:09:00] together?
Jessie Mabry: Right.
Jeff Holden: So I, I just asked you two questions in one. Let's start with the, You know, just the, the three groups that you service most and, and talk a little bit about that. Sure.
Jessie Mabry: I like to say that we are agnostic as to how folks get to Sacramento. We just want to help them be successful once they're here. So whether they come through the refugee resettlement process, whether they come here seeking asylum, or maybe they're a DACA recipient, whether they come to the U.
S. as a trafficking victim or are trafficked once they are here. We are really agnostic as to as to how folks get here. We just want to help them thrive once they are here.
Jeff Holden: Now, the scope of services that you provide to this really eclectic group of people that come in.
Jessie Mabry: Mm hmm. Yeah. Our mission is to enrich communities by supporting immigrants, refugees, and survivors of trafficking on their path to stability, self sufficiency, and belonging.
And [00:10:00] we do have five program areas, refugee programs, health programs, immigration legal services. Yeah. Survivors of Human Trafficking Program and Economic Prosperity. But ultimately, it all comes down to that stability, self sufficiency, and belonging. And we all need those things, regardless of your immigration status or background.
So stability is, where am I going to sleep tonight? Do I have food that I can feed my kids? I've, I'm having an asthma attack. What do I do? It's stability as those very basic things. Typically to sort of generalize a bit, it's really our refugee clients and our survivors of trafficking clients who are in that need to meet their immediate basic needs could be others as well.
But that's where we sort of, that's a large function of those programs. Self sufficiency is. You've met your basic needs, but now you need to make sure that you can sort of integrate into your community, right? Getting a [00:11:00] driver's license, getting enrolled in ESL classes, making sure your kids are enrolled in school.
Jeff Holden: For the benefit of ESL.
Jessie Mabry: Thank you very much. I thought I was going to skip all the acronyms, but one slid through there. Learning English. Yes. Um, English as a second language. English as a second language. Working with a job center or finding employment, any of those types of things would be in that sort of self sufficiency place.
And then belonging is really complex and nuanced, right? I like to think of belonging as being, when does someone start thinking of Sacramento as home? At some point in the journey that will start happening, right? And, and the support that can happen alongside that, oftentimes is related to mental health support.
Regardless of the path that led someone to end up in our lobby, there's probably a lot of trauma involved. Sure. And usually people are not really ready to address that trauma until they have their basic needs met and some of those self sufficiency pieces.
Jeff Holden: And you probably have some [00:12:00] cultural stigma to address the trauma with mental health, mental wellness.
Jessie Mabry: Absolutely. Yes, we do sometimes have to be a bit creative in how we package sort of some of that mental health support. But belonging can also look like applying for citizenship. Belonging can look like opening a business. You know, there are lots of different ways to support people all along their journey.
Jeff Holden: Mm hmm. Legal services, attorneys, health care services, physicians and medical care teams, are they actually employees or are they? services that you, you employ outside.
Jessie Mabry: So I'll answer those questions one at a time, because it's a bit different for the two. In terms of legal services, we have a legal services team.
We have attorneys on staff, we have legal assistants, and we provide immigration legal services. Many people don't know this, but immigration court is civil court. So there is no right to representation. So if someone is [00:13:00] going through. The perhaps applying for asylum or something like that through the immigration court system if they don't get Representation if they can't afford the thousands of dollars that a private sector attorney will charge if they can't get services From an organization like opening doors or someone else providing pro bono.
They go through it on their own They go through it on their own if they're a minor.
Jeff Holden: Attempting to represent themselves?
Jessie Mabry: If they're a child, if they don't speak English, if they're not literate. Doesn't matter. There's no right to representation. So we have There's an incredible need in our community for pro bono or, or even low cost immigration legal services.
We, we unfortunately turn away for every case that we can accept. Depending on the type of case, we turn away 20 to 40 people who are eligible for our services. That would have
Jeff Holden: been my next question. How, how many don't? Get the service.
Jessie Mabry: Most people will not get [00:14:00] the service. And there's a lot of data that shows that the outcomes, as to be expected, are much better when someone is represented by counsel.
Jeff Holden: Sure.
Jessie Mabry: So we, we do have attorneys on staff and legal professionals on staff to provide those services. For healthcare, we actually contract with various different therapists or social workers or things along those lines. We have in the past hired. counselors or therapists ourselves, but we actually find that by having a sort of a bench of contract therapists, we're able to provide greater language diversity in that and better respond to the needs of our population.
So we are, we're always looking for therapists that speak Spanish, Russian, Farsi, those sorts of things.
Jeff Holden: Hmong, I would imagine. Yeah.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah, and then we also in our health program do some health care navigation. People may have insurance, but how do you access it? How do you get to that provider? [00:15:00] How do you ask for an interpreter?
How do you advocate for your child at the doctor's office? Those sorts of things.
Jeff Holden: Mm hmm. Which makes. perfectly good sense. You're here. Everything's new. And you may have Medi Cal. You may have something to support you, but you're not even sure where to start. I've got potential for the care. So, Is opening doors an opportunity for them really in a, in a full service sense from, I'll say start not to finish because you're going to guide them through other collaborative efforts.
Who do you find that you work most with?
Jessie Mabry: So I like to think of our work as helping people access. Um, resources to which they're entitled. That might be enrolling your child at school. That might be like the example you gave, getting health care service through Medi [00:16:00] Cal. Simple as a
Jeff Holden: driver's license.
Jessie Mabry: Exactly. And we want to. Get folks to the place where they are able to navigate their community and advocate for themselves. So we will often work with people for a period of time and then they go off and then they may come back. So we may pick them up at the airport if they're a newly arriving refugee and work with them for 90 days as they secure their first apartment and get their kids enrolled in school and things like that.
And then we close the case and they keep working stocking shelves at Walmart and walking their kids to the bus stop and things like that. And a little while later, you know, mom might say, you know, I'm ready to try to get some of that therapy now. I'm ready to try that. So we enroll her in services, provide some mental health support.
So you've
Jeff Holden: actually built a relationship with the family at that point to where whomever in the family is comfortable coming back to the organization to say, [00:17:00] we're stuck. Yeah.
Jessie Mabry: We're ready for the next step. You know, in our integration into our community here in Sacramento.
Jeff Holden: That's outstanding. Give me a, a success story.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. Tell
Jeff Holden: me somebody who, who came through the program and the next thing you know, they're thriving.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. It does take a little more time than the next thing you know, but it does, it does I appreciate that. It could be three, four, five years down the line. You know, the, the client that comes to mind, uh, first is a man named Muhammad.
He and his wife came here as refugees from Afghanistan because of Muhammad's, you know, employment in Afghanistan. He was at risk when the Taliban took over and they came to Sacramento and after some time Muhammad was interested in starting a business. So he was connected to our economic prosperity program where we are able to provide loans and Um, business counseling to refugee and immigrant [00:18:00] entrepreneurs.
We do this through in language, which is one of the key pieces that differentiates the services for us. So all the
Jeff Holden: financing, the specifics are in language.
Jessie Mabry: So our economic prosperity team speaks Russian, Ukrainian, Dari, Farsi, Arabic, Urdu, Pashto, and Vietnamese.
Jeff Holden: United Nations.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. I mean it when we say it.
Almost United Nations. A few not in there, but. Yeah. Speak over a dozen languages, but absolutely. So we're able to, you know, do the, the lending process and language, but also understand what kind of licenses do you need? What kind of insurance do you need? All of those aspects of starting a business and provide that one on one counseling to an entrepreneur.
So Mohammed got his store up and running. It's a family business. They sell fabric and they also do, you know, one of a kind tailoring. And a little while later, he and his wife decided to pay it forward and started offering classes to Afghan women, teaching them tailoring skills so they might make a little bit of [00:19:00] money at home.
Jeff Holden: How neat is that?
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: And just to think that somebody who landed here some years ago, however they got here for whatever reason they got here, to be able to take and incorporate, you know, that, that spirit of entrepreneurship. Mm hmm. in another country, in another language, in another financial and socioeconomic system and be able to succeed,
Jessie Mabry: which
Jeff Holden: is the entire basis of our immigration.
Jessie Mabry: Right.
Jeff Holden: To begin with.
Jessie Mabry: Absolutely. I mean, that's how my grandparents came here, right? My grandparents fled Germany between the two. the world wars, there was a lot of poverty and there weren't a lot of opportunities. And they came here and my grandfather started a gardening business. And it was a way to, to support his family and give back to the community.
And we see that same story repeated throughout, throughout, throughout our country.
Jeff Holden: Well and as our populations grow in particular niche, whether it be Russian, Or Ukrainian, whatever, that community then has somebody to [00:20:00] service those particular cultural needs. Yeah. I'm sure the fabric and the dress and everything that they were, they were providing was unique to the culture.
Jessie Mabry: And it ends up being this system that sort of renews itself over and over again. We see that Sacramento is home to one of the largest Afghan communities in the United States. It's estimated that one out of every nine Afghans or Afghan Americans living in the U. S. lives in the greater Sacramento area.
And so when Afghans are coming here, I know it's amazing. It is amazing. And it's, it's an incredibly rich, strong community. And when Afghans are coming to the U. S., our housing price is high. Yeah. Are there challenges here? That's an understatement, yes. Absolutely. But is there a bakery where you can buy bread from home, baked fresh every day?
Jeff Holden: Can
Jessie Mabry: you chit chat with other moms at school pickup in your own language? Can you go to Muhammad's store when you're getting ready for a family wedding and get just the right outfit? You know, those things make all the difference.
Jeff Holden: Yeah. We [00:21:00] are in a, somewhat tumultuous time with immigration and not to touch on the political elements of it.
I think the perception of the country as a whole right now is there's a great deal of concern. How do you address that in your book? Non immigrant population with people that are saying well, this is an issue,
Jessie Mabry: right?
Jeff Holden: I
Jessie Mabry: mean, I think we are undeniably seeing this become a hot button issue at a national level one of the things that I find hard to reconcile is that The data around the contribution of immigrants and refugees does not align with the narrative that we see Right.
We see that immigrants and refugees, for example, start businesses at two and four percentage points more than U. S. born, the U. S. born population.
Jeff Holden: [00:22:00] I can appreciate that because they need to serve their community.
Jessie Mabry: Absolutely. But they, you know, the immigrants and refugees contribute in so many other ways.
There were 40, 000 DACA recipients working in hospitals on the front lines of the COVID pandemic. I mean, there's, there's just, A number of ways that immigrants and refugees are contributing to our communities and really making us all better off. Another statistic is that within five years, refugees have paid 20, 000 more in taxes than they use in public benefits.
Many of us come to this work because of our faith background or moral values or something along those lines. But even if that's not motivating, there is a real economic. rationale to support this work. That said, I really do feel incredibly lucky to be doing this work in Sacramento. I think our specific community is incredibly proud of our diversity.
[00:23:00] I think that whenever I tell anyone that doesn't already know that one out of every nine Afghans in the U. S. is here, they, they light up a little bit because they're, they're proud of that. And so our Sacramento values of inclusivity and welcome really shine through. For example, in August of 2021, when the U.
S. military pulled out of Afghanistan, and you can remember the news reports at that time. Absolutely,
Jeff Holden: yeah.
Jessie Mabry: Our website crashed because so many people reached out wanting to volunteer or help. It was a rough time to fix a website crash. But, you know, that to me is, just shows how, how much our community shares our values of welcome.
Jeff Holden: Boy, does that ever speak volumes to the, number of people either in those communities or interest in
Jessie Mabry: support.
Jeff Holden: That's, it's kind of a compliment. It's not something you want to have happen, but you know, nonetheless, it's [00:24:00] really interesting to think that there was that much interest and support. Yeah. And I know, you know, I think this is the third largest or fourth largest or fourth most diverse university in the country.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: That's a, that's a big deal. Yeah. Let me ask scope of service or geography of service. How far do you go? What is your reach?
Jessie Mabry: So, our main office is in the Arden Arcade area in Sacramento. We've reached, pretty centrally
Jeff Holden: located.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. We've Recently opened a satellite office in Yuba City where we have a small staff up there as well.
And I was going
Jeff Holden: to say, that's why I was asking, our Sikh community is, if I'm not mistaken, the largest in the country. The largest in the country in that
Jessie Mabry: area. Absolutely. Yeah. And we've actually seen over the past, I mean, I don't know that I have good data on this, but my gut sense is over the past seven or eight years, more and more Afghans moving up to that area as well.
I like to say that when we When I first started doing this work, there was not a single Afghan grocery store in Yuba City. [00:25:00] Then they got one Afghan grocery store, now they have two. So, if that's a symbol of, you know, how many Afghans are up there. Our clients come to us from the greater Sacramento region, Yolo County, Sacramento County, you know, that area.
Tanner Iskra
Jeff Holden: How far south do you go? Dr.
Jessie Mabry: Melissa Nelson So, we have a partnership with another community based organization that is providing some support in Modesto, but our staff are really here in the Sacramento area.
Jeff Holden: We touched on collaboration a little bit earlier, but what organizations do you find yourself working most with?
Jessie Mabry: Yeah, so I like to think of this as sort of a Venn diagram with a couple of different circles, right? There's, what do we do well? What does our community need? And where are the gaps of what other folks are either not providing or not meeting the full need? If our community needs. And then we're going to have some sort of support, but someone else is already providing it.
It makes a lot more sense for us to [00:26:00] collaborate and partner and refer each other
Jeff Holden: clients. That's so refreshing to hear.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: And it's the purpose of all of our non profits. Mm hmm. Don't silo.
Jessie Mabry: Absolutely.
Jeff Holden: Leverage the strengths of each of the organizations. Mm hmm.
Jessie Mabry: It's challenging. I mean, in this field, we're collaborators one day and we're competitors the next, when we're going after the same grant.
But you know what, this work matters. I'm a big believer that our pie is large enough for everyone. And you may win the grant tomorrow, but I might win it the next day. And there's no reason why we shouldn't collaborate.
Jeff Holden: And I would say there's nothing to stop. Organizations from co applications, which I'm hearing more and more of.
Great. Because then it sustains both of you and you're forced to work together. It's, it's certainly one of the big goals of the program is we come in contact with so many different people and, and surprisingly to me, same county, same [00:27:00] service. Yeah. Well, of course, you know, no, don't, how could you not? And you're both big organizations, even in some cases, so it's, it's amazing the opportunities that we do have.
And I think that's where organizations like Impact Foundry and the Community Regional Foundation support all of it in a positive way. We'll be back with more with Jesse Mabry from Opening Doors. Right after these messages from the people who make this program possible. I was in the media business for over 35 years and had the great privilege of working with Runyon Saltzman, RSC, marketing, advertising, and public relations.
We collaborated on many different campaigns, but their commitment to the nonprofit sector hasn't changed since their founder Gene Runyon started the agency. Over many years and many campaigns, Runyon Saltzman has been committed to improving lives by tackling California's most challenging issues. Guided by research informed strategies and insightful, creative solutions, RSE [00:28:00] develops innovative communications campaigns that raise awareness, Educate and reduce stigma in diverse communities throughout our state and beyond.
To learn more about RSE, visit rs e. com.
Scott Thomas: Hello, this is Scott Thomas with CAP Trust in our Sacramento office. I specialize in working with local nonprofits and associations. Annually, we survey private and public nonprofit organizations across the country to better understand challenges they see in today's environment.
In our more recent survey, we heard concerns about proper board governance, mission aligned investment, and how to implement alternative investments. If you would like a copy of the survey or to discuss your organization, look me up, scottthomasatcaptrust. com.
Jeff Holden: I'm thrilled to have Western Health Advantage partnering with us as they do so much to support so many non profit agencies in our community.
As a truly local health plan, you'll find individual and family options, employer options, [00:29:00] plans for CalPERS and Medicare Advantage. From medical services to pharmacy, health and wellness support, as well as behavioral health care, Western Health Advantage has a plan that fits what you need. As an employer, for profit or non profit business, individual or family, you can find more at WesternHealth.
com. Let's talk a little bit about money.
Jessie Mabry: Alright.
Jeff Holden: How are you funded? And you're a pretty good sized operation at around 10
Jessie Mabry: million a year. Yeah, that's correct. So we are overwhelmingly funded by government grants, you know, over 90%. Multi
Jeff Holden: year?
Jessie Mabry: Yeah, yeah, there's a, there's a real mix. Given the type of work that we do, human services work, we'll probably always have a significant chunk of our budget from government.
So when, This is very specific to our work and the, and services that we provide, but I think of revenue diversity as looking at some federal, some state, some county, and then even within the state [00:30:00] and the federal looking at getting funding from different departments.
Jeff Holden: Which is smart because it gives you a buffer when one dries up and the other will balance itself out.
Jessie Mabry: Exactly.
Jeff Holden: What are you seeing in terms of the anticipation going forward near term?
Jessie Mabry: Well, given the kind of work that we do, we are incredibly impacted by changes at a national level. It's hard to explain this without getting too far into the jargon. So if I try to give an explanation and you need me to High
Jeff Holden: level.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. Just, just ask me to start again. The Refugee Act of 1980 defines the refugee resettlement process. And part of that process is that at the end of every September, the president sets what's called the presidential determination, which is essentially a ceiling of how many refugees can come into the United States.
It's a ceiling, not a floor.
Jeff Holden: And is there a designation, just so I'm clear? immigrants versus refugees.
Jessie Mabry: So immigrants and refugees are two completely different [00:31:00] pathways to get to the US.
Jeff Holden: Non synonymous. Yeah. Yeah. They're,
Jessie Mabry: they're not non synonymous is a good word for it. And, you know, we've saw in the last administration that the ceiling for refugee admissions was much, much lower than it is under this administration.
So we are watching carefully the impacts of the next election, because that's gonna lead directly to how many refugees can come into our country. And you know, essentially our funding will be impacted by that in one way or another.
Jeff Holden: Yeah, more, more, less, less. If money were no object, what would the organization look like?
Jessie Mabry: I have money or no object. So you, you asked a question about, you know, immigrant versus refugee. There are many different pathways to come into the U. S. and one is the refugee resettlement pathway. In order to become a refugee, someone has to be fleeing a well founded fear of persecution. Because [00:32:00] of their membership in a particular social class, that's a legal definition.
So particular social, social class could be an ethnic minority. It could be a member of a political party, that sort of thing. Could be a woman. Could be a woman, depending on the context. By the time a refugee arrives in the United States, they've gone through an extensive, sometimes four or five year long vetting and screening process.
Jeff Holden: I'm going to stop you just for a second there because I think that's important for everybody to understand in this refugee process. This is not an illegal immigrant crashing through the border. This is a well vetted, as you said, could be five years of immigration. effort
Jessie Mabry: to
Jeff Holden: get here. Yeah. There's a full intent to get here.
There's a want to get here. There's a need and a, and a possible familial connection here.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. Refugees are actually the most highly vetted traveler to the United States out of all the different kinds of travelers that you might have student visas, tourist visas, et cetera. [00:33:00] So in, In comparison to, to refugees, asylum seekers would be folks that get to the United States and claim asylum upon entry.
This is, often folks don't understand this, but there is only one way to claim asylum in the U. S., and you have to be a refugee. appoint, uh, port of entry that's for most that's going to be at the southern border, but it could be a Chinese student gets a student visa and then flies into San Francisco airport.
And as he's passing customs and border patrol makes a claim of political asylum, for example. So there it is a student visa. It is legally not possible to claim asylum outside of the United States.
Jeff Holden: Oh.
Jessie Mabry: Yes.
Jeff Holden: Very helpful to know. Yeah. Did not know that. Yeah.
Jessie Mabry: Once someone claims asylum at the border, there is a very low bar, what is called a credible fear interview.
They're not trying to actually. Determine all the facts, but just get a sense of, is this, is [00:34:00] this a credible asylum claim? And then what typically happens is that then the individual is what's called paroled into the country and then waits for their asylum hearing in court. This also can be a multi year process, three, four, five, sometimes even more years.
Jeff Holden: Okay. And they're here. And they're
Jessie Mabry: here.
Jeff Holden: Got it. A hundred and They can, they can work.
Jessie Mabry: A hundred and eighty days after they apply for asylum, they can apply for work authorization.
Jeff Holden: Perfect.
Jessie Mabry: The basis for asylum is the same as the basis for refugee status, a well founded fear of persecution because of their membership in a particular social class.
It's really about where does someone make the claim of that persecution.
Jeff Holden: So refugee starts
Jessie Mabry: overseas.
Jeff Holden: in, in home country, asylum starts here. Exactly. Wonderful explanation. So now you got all the money in the world.
Jessie Mabry: So there are more resources available to the refugee population than to the asylum seeking population.
This [00:35:00] is in that period of time when they've made the claim of asylum, but before it's been adjudicated in court.
Jeff Holden: Okay.
Jessie Mabry: And for lots of various different reasons, there are less public resources and we have less grant resources to serve those populations. That's an area that I think really needs some significant support.
Even just helping people get to that 180 day period.
Jeff Holden: And six months of doing what?
Jessie Mabry: Well, exactly. And there's, you know, it's Um, what we see is that folks, cause we try to do what we can with the limited resources that we have, but it is limited. So we're not able to help as many people as need the support.
But what we see are that these asylum seekers that come to our communities, they want to keep their families safe. That's that's why they fled El Salvador or wherever they've come from Venezuela. Yeah. And they need targeted, short term help. support. Once they can get a job, they are often running [00:36:00] and they don't really need much support after that.
So if we had unlimited resources, I'd love to be able to extend the services that we currently provide to refugees to asylum seekers as well. I think another piece for us to think about in terms of unlimited resources is really what we need is flexible, Unrestricted general operating funds because of the nature of our work.
We are pretty consistently responding very quickly to outside factors that are beyond our control. There's a bomb at the gate of the Kabul airport and all of a sudden we see those numbers go right up or Russia invades Ukraine or whatever it is, and they end up having really significant impacts on our work.
If we have a multi year grant with specific allowable activities that was set [00:37:00] before Russia invades Ukraine, we're not able to use those resources to respond in a timely manner.
Jeff Holden: Oh. Why is that?
Jessie Mabry: Because grant contracts are written as if.
Jeff Holden: Oh, and you have to fulfill the You have to fulfill Yeah, the specifics of the grant.
The specifics
Jessie Mabry: of the grant.
Jeff Holden: Wow.
Jessie Mabry: Mm hmm.
Jeff Holden: That's got to be frustrating sometimes when you know you've got the money and you can't use it for a particular application.
Jessie Mabry: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Jeff Holden: Well, that, that's a great segue, you know, now we're off the yellow brick road and we're back into reality. You know, what is the greatest need?
Jessie Mabry: I think it's that, that general operating support that allows us to be, to be flexible in probably two different ways, flexible responding to a crisis faster, frankly, than the government can get up to. It allows us to be flexible and really respond to the whole needs of the individual we're serving. We may have grant funding, for example, [00:38:00] to provide legal representation to someone seeking asylum.
But if they're having mental health challenges because of the trauma they've experienced, that can sometimes get in the way of them being a good partner with their attorney for their case. Flexible funding allows us to then get that individual some, some therapy services or something along those lines.
Jeff Holden: Volunteers. How many volunteers do you have? I would imagine you've got a cadre of them.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. We use Just because
Jeff Holden: of all the different dialects and languages.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. We use volunteers in a couple of different ways and folks can go to our website to sign up and, and learn more. But we, people can volunteer for For support that, that anyone can do, picking a refugee family up at the airport and helping transport them.
Or sometimes, you know, if it's a family of, of 10, they might have a lot of luggage and we might need two cars to get them to the airport or to the [00:39:00] apartment after the airport. We also try to match volunteers with really specific skills to very tailored opportunities. So for example, we've had a volunteer with some graphic design and marketing experience, who's provided some, um, Pro bono support to some of our microentrepreneur clients as well.
Jeff Holden: I imagine even vice versa, as somebody comes over from wherever they come over from, who's in that particular field, the ability to give them comfort to know that this job is real here too, and we have the ability to assimilate you into something, work of some sort when the ability or opportunity presents itself.
I just love the elements of everything that's going and I'm sure there's frustrations when it gets into some of the more difficult, the legal cases and the, you know, the less than just simple home work medical process where it's, it's abusive situations or [00:40:00] trafficking situations and those, those are a lot more difficult.
What's the best way for somebody to get in touch with the organization?
Jessie Mabry: They could go to our website, openingdoorsinc. org, and there you can learn about ways to sign up to volunteer, support with a contribution, or any of those sorts of ways to get involved.
Jeff Holden: And I do love the website. We've got it up in the background here for the, for the visual side of this thing.
But the website has a lot of information on it and easily
Jessie Mabry: navigated in
Jeff Holden: English. And I'm sure it has, you have other languages that it populates in as well. But it's, it's a testament when you see something like that to say you understand the community you're serving. And that's just fantastic. Thank
Jessie Mabry: you.
Jeff Holden: Well, you know, Jesse, you and your team have incredibly challenging work to do and you're doing Incredibly great job at doing it. Thank you. Your passion is palpable. , I love you. You can feel it. Mm-Hmm. . And it's, it's one of the reasons we like to do these in person when we can. [00:41:00]
Jessie Mabry: Mm-Hmm. .
Jeff Holden: Because you don't catch this Yeah.
Off of a screen.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: And you don't see it. You don't feel it. It's just a little
Jessie Mabry: Yeah. You
Jeff Holden: know, less real.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: But you know, what you're doing in the work you're doing, especially in this time, in this space in our country, is. not easy, but it's got to be so gratifying. And to the communities that you serve, especially our greater Sacramento community, you know, what a, what a blessing that we've got an organization like this.
to support those people who really need it and to find out that we've got one of the largest, you know, Afghan populations. We know we've got one of the largest Sikh populations. I would imagine that our Slavic population is huge in terms of, you know, the country. So, you know, we continue to be the Sacramento that we are, where we're one of the top multi ethnicity cities in the country.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: And it's because of people like you that allow us to get there.
Jessie Mabry: Well, I just want to [00:42:00] say that this wouldn't, none of this would be possible without the community in Sacramento. And that's, you know, everybody is a part of the welcoming community. You and I, as well as the, our Afghan or Salvadoran neighbors who are welcoming their family members here.
And while there are certainly challenges to this work, something that I think doesn't get enough attention is how much joy. is in this work as well. We're talking about families getting reunited. We're talking about parents who are able to secure safety for their children. There is an incredible amount of joy amidst all of the challenges.
Jeff Holden: Well, and going from mental anguish
Jessie Mabry: to
Jeff Holden: mental health, to the ability to see that I'm going to be okay, now am I going to survive, but I can actually do something and contribute. And, you know, on that side, we know work is, is gratifying. Work is what gives people purpose. You flip that around to where your work is supporting and it's giving back.[00:43:00]
That's what creates gratitude.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: You know, and it's visceral.
Jessie Mabry: Yeah.
Jeff Holden: So thank you for what you do.
Jessie Mabry: Thank you so much for having me.
Jeff Holden: I'm happy to, happy to have been able to, to share these stories. And there's a bit of a little bit of a history lesson here. So I think people are going to learn some things in a technical way as opposed to just, you know, a holistic way about the organization.
Jessie Mabry: Mm hmm. Thank you.
Jeff Holden: You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you for listening to the Nonprofit Podcast Network. I hope you enjoyed the episode. If what you heard moved you, please reach out to that organization and do what you can to help. If you like and appreciate what we're doing to support local non profits, please give us a positive review, subscribe, and share.
If you're a non profit with an interest in participating in an episode, you can reach me at jeff at hearmenowstudio. com. If you have a need for the services or products our sponsors offer, please reach out to them. Cap Trust, fiduciary advice for endowments and foundations, Runyon Saltzman [00:44:00] Incorporated, RSC, marketing, advertising, and public relations creating integrated communications committed to improving lives, and Western Health Advantage, a full service health care plan for individuals, employer groups, and families.
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