CRIS Can Help You Successfully Employ People Like Aberhet!

                                aberhet and family

Meet Aberhet Yabyo and her family:  husband, Adhanom Abreha, and three sons, Abel (13), Naho (10), and Samuel (8).   Aberhet is a refugee from the African country of Eritrea.  Her story is not uncommon among refugees, and it demonstrates the perseverance and character qualities that refugees often bring with them to the workplace.

Aberhet was resettled from Eritrea to Arizona in 2009.  She arrived alone with her three young children, because her husband had previously escaped to Israel to try to establish a life for them there.  Refugees may spend many years with immediate family members separated from one another in an attempt to find the surest path to safety.  These separations often mark the beginning of a long process focused on creating a stable life.  Upon arrival, Aberhet spoke no English and had to figure out daily life as a solo parent in a new culture and in a community where few people spoke her native language, Tigrinya.Aberhet enrolled at CRIS several months later when she moved to Columbus in order to be near a community of Tigrinya speakers.  CRIS's Supplemental Services and Employability programs helped her to become settled in this new city.  Aberhet never lost sight of her goal of creating a stable, unified family.  She began attending job readiness and ESOL classes at CRIS, while her children started school.  Meanwhile, CRIS also helped her through what is often an arduous process of bringing her husband to the US in order to reunite the family. Adhanom joined his family in Columbus in 2011.Aberhet and Adhanom continue to progress step by step toward their goals of providing a good life for their family.  Both of them are employed in the warehouse industry, which has allowed them to be immersed in the English language and to achieve some financial stability.  Obtaining a good education for their children is important to the Abreha family, and they recently moved to a new school district that will help them meet this objective.  When asked what she would hope for her children, Aberhet answered, “What I want is to help them be successful in whatever they choose.” CRIS Can Help You Successfully Employ People Like Aberhet!We know that turnover is expensive and that successful workforce development is a key ingredient in containing that cost.  CRIS would like to be your ally in hiring and maintaining a motivated workforce.  Our clients are primarily refugees, like Aberhet.  They come to the US with a strong desire to build a new life.  CRIS employment counselors and teaching staff work to equip these workers with the cultural, language, and soft skills necessary to be successful employees.  CRIS staff can also provide native language interpretation, free of charge, for interviews, orientation, training, and employment reviews.  In addition, when a CRIS client experiences a disruption due to unexpected life circumstances, his CRIS caseworker helps him navigate a course toward a quick resolution.We also support you, the employer, throughout this relationship.  The CRIS Employer Representative will work with you to understand your staffing needs and identify a pool of potential candidates who meet your qualifications.   We are willing to facilitate as much of the hiring process as you would like.  Services could include: receiving a job posting from you over the phone/email and responding quickly with applicants, notifying you via phone/email when a CRIS client applies for a publicly posted opening, putting together a hiring event at which you may interview a number clients during an afternoon, or assisting you in arranging individual interviews with CRIS clients who have completed applications.  Our employment staff also conducts on-site cultural understanding presentations for HR and Operations Management, so that they are better able to achieve the personnel results they are seeking.If you would like to explore how CRIS can help you with your workforce needs, please contact Beth Watkins, Job Developer, at 614-456-1520 or ewatkins@cris-ohio.com.

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One Job for One Year—Oma’s Story

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