HHS Announces $2.3 Million to Help Refugees Settle in U.S.

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Sept. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ — HHS Secretary Tommy G.
Thompson today awarded a $3.2 million grant to the Catholic Charities
of Louisville to provide medical care, job training and other services
to 2,000 recent refugees to the United States.

The Catholic Charities of Louisville’s Kentucky Wilson-Fish Program
will use the grant to help refugees integrate into American society by
offering cash and medical assistance, helping them learn English, and
providing social services such as job training.

“Kentucky compassionately opens its arms to refugees from around the
world,” Secretary Thompson said. “This grant is another example of
President Bush working with our nation’s faith-based communities to
ensure that new refugees’ arrival in the United States is as smooth as
possible.”

Administered by HHS’ Administration for Children and Families, the
$3.2 million grant will allow the Kentucky Wilson-Fish Program to
serve 2,000 refugees, asylum seekers, or victims of human
trafficking. More than 1,300 of the refugees who will be served
recently arrived in the United States, while 640 of the refugees have
been in the United States for a longer period of time but will be
served by the programs.

“As a faith-based community, Catholic Charities has had a long history
of collaborating with the federal government to provide social
services to the greater community,” said Steve Bogus, executive
director of Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Louisville. “Catholic
Charities is honored to accept this award which will allow us to
practice the precepts of our faith on a daily basis, Catholic social
teaching, and to fulfill our commitment to faithful citizenship.”

The Kentucky Wilson-Fish Program, one of the largest of its kind in
the nation, provides day-to-day assistance to refugees to help them
better integrate into American society and sets a goal of finding jobs
for refugees within four months of their arrival in the United
States. The program assists refugees from such countries as Ethiopia,
Sudan, Congo, Liberia, Togo, Rwanda, Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan,
Kosovo, Bosnia, Azerbaijan, the former Soviet Union, Armenia, Vietnam
and Columbia.

The grant is part of President Bush’s Faith-Based and Community
Initiative, which enables some of the most effective social service
providers in American to compete for federal funding to make a
difference in the lives of our most vulnerable citizens — without
compromising the provider’s religious character and independence.

As part of this initiative, HHS’ Compassion Capital Fund was created
three years ago and has awarded more than $150 million to support
efforts in local communities provide services to our neediest
neighbors. President Bush’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2005 would
increase support for the Compassion Capital Fund to $161 million.

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Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials
are available at

Contact: ACF Press Office, 202-401-9215

09/20 18:51