It’s a busy but typical day at the International Institute of Akron, a federally appointed resettlement organization that helps refugees learn how to become American citizens.
Upstairs, receptionist Sharon Irwin checks in clients with a broad range of problems, including a Congolese woman who needs help sorting her junk mail.
Downstairs, Serbian-born Boris Udovicic organizes clothing donations, reminded of how his own family needed help after escaping the Balkan War nearly 20 years ago.
In the education room, Leah Holden passes out coins to Bhutanese men and women who have come for “money class.”
Irwin, Udovicic and Holden are all volunteers who share a passion for helping Akron’s newest residents navigate lives so dramatically different than the ones they left behind.
Over the next few months, the Akron Beacon Journal is taking the mystery out of what it means to be a volunteer by offering a step-by-step guide on how to get involved with a Summit County institution.
In previous stories, we explained how to volunteer with Junior Achievement, the Akron Zoo and the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
Today: How to volunteer at the International Institute of Akron.
While there is temporarily a federal ban on new refugees, the work of the institute continues with the hundreds of families already here. Last year alone, the nonprofit helped resettle 643 people in the Akron area.
The institute has responded to a new surge of volunteer interest by scheduling more informational sessions. The next one will take place 10 a.m. to noon Feb. 11 at the agency, 207 E. Tallmadge Ave. Reserve a seat by emailing volunteer@iiakron.org.
Signing up
After that, you’ll need to volunteer the way I did, by visiting http://iiakron.org. There I found a “How you can help” page that explained a variety of opportunities.
For instance, I could assist in teaching English and other classes, help out with office tasks or building and grounds maintenance, or organize the donation room.
I soon learned that list just brushed the surface of what volunteers do for the agency.
Instead of an application, the website asked me to fill out a contact form. A couple of days later, I received a welcome email from volunteer coordinator Paige Bittle, along with an application form and some helpful reading material.
I scheduled an in-person interview where Bittle answered all of my questions and gave me a tour of the agency’s red brick building on Tallmadge Avenue.
Background checks and a confidentiality form are required. Most volunteers are needed during weekday business hours. Some positions are looking for folks with a specialized skill or experience.
For instance, those with legal or human resource backgrounds can assist with job counseling. Volunteers with a health industry background are tapped to teach refugees how to access medical care. Folks with social service experience may be asked to provide families with conversation, support and friendship.
Have any experience in teaching or leading groups? You could teach refugees how to use the bus system and take them on a walking tour of North Hill. Because most families start their new lives in that neighborhood, they need to learn how to find and use a post office or the library, or make a purchase at a grocery store or pharmacy.
Other jobs merely need a kind heart or a little muscle, like those who staff the reception desk or those who sort the donations of bedding, kitchenware, clothes and household supplies.
And a couple of opportunities require a very special commitment. Local families willing to go through training are paired up with refugee families in a cultural exchange, and business mentors counsel entrepreneurs on how to operate micro businesses.
Bittle arranged two experiences for me: One hour on the reception desk and one hour assisting a financial literacy class.
Showing up
I showed up at the institute at 1 p.m. on a January afternoon and was introduced to Irwin, a retired psychologist who has been volunteering at the reception desk almost every Tuesday since September.
“It’s the highlight of my week,” she said, standing behind a desk in a tiny room where chairs lining the walls were already full of clients.
Irwin used to drive by the institute on her way to work, curious about what was going on inside. When she retired last year, she stopped in to ask about volunteering and “once I saw what they did here, I was sold.”
Most International Institute volunteers learn by shadowing a veteran for a shift or two, so I watched Irwin’s routine as she asked each arrival to check in with their name and the name of their case manager.
When language barriers got in the way, Irwin opened a binder of laminated photographs of the agency’s staff so the client could point to the face of their adviser.
I used this technique when a man approached me at the desk carrying a piece of paper and speaking a language I didn’t recognize. I saw the name “Luke” penciled on the paper he held, flipped through the binder until I found an employee named Luke, then nodded my understanding.
As case managers became available, they stopped by, reviewed the sign-in sheet, and disappeared with clients into private offices.
During lulls in activity, Irwin likes to strike up conversations with waiting clients who speak some English. Refugees often spend years in camps waiting to start a new life in another country and she said she has been moved by the challenges they face in having to reinvent themselves.
“Everyone has a story,” she said, “and to a person, everyone has been so grateful and kind.”
Teacher for a day
An hour later, I headed off to my next assignment. Staff teacher Mahananda Luitel turned the first hour of “money class” over to his volunteer assistant, Leah Holden, so I became Holden’s assistant.
Seated before us were 15 Bhutanese men and women, all smiling and seeming eager to get started. When Holden started class with a simple English lesson, they burst out the answers in unison.
“What day is it?” — “Tuesday!”
“How did you come to class today?” — “Walking!”
“It’s cold out. What did you put on to keep you warm?” They shouted out “jackets,” “hat,” “gloves.”
After a bit more English practice, it was down to business. Each student received a quarter, dime, nickel and penny, and it became clear to me they had this part of the lesson down pat. They were flawless in reciting the names of the coins, their values, and the names of the men on each coin.
The real challenge this day was teaching them how to add the coins together to pay for a purchase.
Holden and I passed out worksheets then walked among the students for one-on-one support. Most students had advanced enough to do simple calculations: A quarter is 25 cents, a dime is 10 cents, and together they equal 35 cents.
But others found it tricky when the cents accumulated into dollars. When I spotted a couple of students making a mistake, I followed Holden’s example in explaining that dollars are written to the left of the period and cents written to the right.
One man’s eyes lit up. He looked over his four quarters, changed his $.10 to $1.00, then beamed as he showed me his correction.
One thing that struck me about volunteering with the International Institute was how much everyone seemed to want to be there. The immigrants. The staff. The volunteers.
Holden, who retired from a career working with people with developmental disabilities, decided to volunteer after attending a naturalization ceremony a couple of years ago.
“It was so moving to me,” she said. “These people work so hard to be here. Everything they study, everything they have to learn. I just wanted to be a part of that.”
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.