Welcoming New Iowans; A Guide for Christians and Churches, 2002

Immigrant and refugee newcomers have an important role in Iowa. These newcomers have revitalized many Iowa communities, workplaces and faith-based institutions. The arrival of immigrants and refugees poses challenges as well as rewards; understanding and addressing these issues is vital to welcoming and accommodating new Iowans and assuring their part in the long-term economic and social health of our state. This handbook represents a unique collaboration between the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) and Ecumenical Ministries of Iowa (EMI). The goal of this collaboration is to create a guidebook for Iowans to learn more about Iowa’s growing immigrant and refugee population and discover ways to welcome these newcomers and accommodate them in our communities and churches. The unique nature of this joint publication between a public university and Christian churches acknowledges that both institutions have a stake in accommodating immigrants in Iowa. UNI and all institutions of higher education need to support population growth to assure future enrollments. Churches and many other community institutions need immigrants and other newcomers to help maintain their viability. Universities and churches also need healthy local economies. Newcomers can provide much needed skills and labor to make this happen. In short, His collaboration recognizes that making immigration in Iowa work has important long-term implications for us all. This book was written and compiled by two university faculty members, but it is not an official university endorsement of Christianity as the only religion practiced and accepted by Iowans, and no university funds were used to print or distribute this handbook. This handbook is written for Iowa’s Christian community and is based on the Biblical mandate to welcome newcomers, but we acknowledge Iowa’s other religious groups and their role in accommodating newcomers as well. We readily acknowledge that other faith-based organizations also welcome newcomers and have a stake in making immigration a positive experience. In order to accommodate the perspectives and needs of these groups, the UNI New Iowans Program is planning to develop similar handbooks for Iowa’s Jewish and Muslim communities. This handbook includes a number of resource lists for individuals, newcomers, churches and others. Of course, as soon as these lists are printed, they may become out-of-date. In order to obtain the most up-to-date information, please visit the UNI New Iowans Web site: www.bcs.uni.edu/idm/newiowans/ The UNI New Iowans website also makes this handbook available in a PDF format.

Iowa Disaster Recovery Framework

This Iowa Disaster Recovery Framework (IDRF) is meant to detail a lasting, flexible structure and system to coordinate and manage disaster recovery in the long-term. The IDRF provides a structure to engage stakeholders such as individual Iowans, local and tribal governments, businesses, voluntary, faith-based and community organizations as well as state and federal agencies to identify and resolve recovery challenges both before and after disaster events. It applies to all disasters, recovery partners, and recovery activities.

The Child Welfare Decategorization Program, August 2010

This Handbook is designed to outline the purposes, goals, structure, and operational procedures for Iowa’s Child Welfare Decategorization Program. The Handbook incorporates experiences gained since the inception of Decategorization in 1987. As with any initiative that began on a pilot basis, Decategorization has been an evolving program in which parameters and procedures have undergone modifications to achieve the desired results. The Handbook serves as a guidebook for implementation and operation of Decategorization and a means of communicating information on program parameters and procedures. Purposes of Decategorization of child welfare and juvenile justice funding is an initiative intended to establish systems of delivering human services based upon client needs to replace systems based upon a multitude of categorical funding programs and funding sources, each with different service definitions and eligibility requirements. Decategorization is designed to redirect child welfare and juvenile justice funding to services which are more preventive, family centered, and community-based in order to reduce use of restrictive approaches that rely on institutional, out-of home, and out-of-community care.