Afghan Arrivals Influx Assessment Guides

OMB #: 0970-0531 Expiration Date:

Afghan Arrivals Influx Assessment

National Resettlement Agency Interview Guide¹

Facilitator(s):

National Resettlement Agency:

Date:

Introduction Script

Thank you for agreeing to join this meeting. I’m [NAME] and this is my colleague [NAME], and we work in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). As you know, ORR is conducting an Afghan Arrivals Influx Assessment in states that have been significantly impacted by Afghan evacuee arrivals. The first four states selected for this assessment are California, Oklahoma, Texas, and Virginia. As a reminder, the assessment is not a monitoring review; instead, it is a comprehensive state-wide look at Afghan evacuee resettlement. ORR seeks to: (1) learn how ORR recipients and other stakeholders are meeting ORR-eligible Afghan evacuees’ needs and utilizing Afghan Supplemental Appropriations (ASA) Act funding; and (2) identify service gaps and promising practices.

We will ask some questions to better understand how recent Afghan evacuee arrivals have impacted your state program administration and implementation. During this meeting, we encourage you to share openly about your experiences responding to the rapid and significant influx of Afghan evacuees. There are no right or wrong answers. Our goal is to gather information that can be used to make changes and improvements to ORR’s programs and services. The information your share with us today will help ORR identify training and technical assistance needs as well as service gaps and redundancies that can be addressed through program improvements. Please know that your name and other identifying information will not be included in any notes or reports. The reports are for internal planning and programmatic purposes and not for any kind of public dissemination, even if deidentified.

Our meeting will last about 60 minutes. Please know that your participation in this meeting is voluntary. You may choose to not answer any question and may stop participating in the meeting at any time.

I have one final point to make. We value the time and information you will share with us today and want to make sure we accurately include all the details. With your permission, we will audio record the session and take notes (written and/or on a laptop computer). Those notes will not include your name. The recording will serve as a back-up tool to ensure we include all your comments in as close to your words as possible. Once the project is complete, all recordings will be destroyed. During the discussion, if you would like to stop the recording while you make a particular comment, please let us know and we will do so.

Internal only - Facilitator Tips:

• This focus group is semi-structured and therefore the sequence of the questions might vary as well as the level of probing for information by the facilitator.

• The goal is to collect data on each topic area. Keep in mind that participant responses may cover multiple categories/data points. You may skip a question if you feel the data collection on that topic is sufficient and asking the question would be repetitive.

• Optional questions should be asked only if there is enough time to do so.

Participants:

Participant Name	Participant Position Title

Interview Questions:

1. Organizational Capacity

   1. Overall, what internal and external conditions or factors contributed to your network’s ability to respond to the rapid and significant influx of Afghan evacuees in each state? (Probe internal and external context such as partnerships, community support, organizational structure, staff skills, etc.)

      1. If not included in the response, ASK: What organizational strengths do you think positioned your organization to respond effectively?

2. From your perspective, what are the key things (core strategies) that your organization will need to continue doing to meet the ongoing and unmet needs of Afghan evacuees?

   1. Is there anything that your organization needs to do differently?

   2. What kinds of resources or support do you and your staff need to maintain capacity to serve Afghan evacuees?

3. ASK if not mentioned in previous response: In the PAQ, you mentioned that you adjusted your staffing capacity to respond to the influx of Afghan evacuees. In thinking about these staffing adjustments, what changes do you foresee as long-term or permanent? (Note: These could be changes at the headquarters and/or affiliate level.)

2. U.S. Refugee Resettlement System

   1. Specific to the resettlement of Afghan evacuees, what aspects (strategies) of the federal government response do you think were the most beneficial to your resettlement efforts? What aspects were problematic? (Probe for both beneficial and problematic aspects)

2. What policy recommendations do you have for ORR and other federal partners?

3. Optional Question (ask only if time permits)

   1. What are some things you would do differently if you had to do this all over again?

2. Thinking ahead, as Afghan evacuee arrivals wind down and more “traditional” and potentially robust refugee arrivals resume, how do you plan on sustaining operations both at HQ and with your affiliates to provide quality services to refugees? (Probe what resettlement may look like for their network going forward.)

1 PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT OF 1995 (Pub. L. 104-13) STATEMENT OF PUBLIC BURDEN: Through this information collection, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is gathering information to inform the development and provision of targeted training and technical assistance aimed to enhance refugee resettlement program implementation and changes to ORR policies, programs, and services. Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per grantee, including the time for reviewing instructions, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and reviewing the collection of information. This is a voluntary collection of information. An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB # is 0970-0531 and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX. If you have any comments on this collection of information, please contact [email protected].

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