Six months after opening its doors, the Utah Refugee Services Office is
pleased to introduce our new website to the community. We intend the site to
expand and improve with your input, so please let us know what you think. The
website is meant to be useful to refugees, service providers, public and private
partners, and the community at large. It should assist us in sharing
information, coordinating services, and becoming closer as a community.
As many of you already know, the goals of the Refugee Services Office during
the first year are to: 1. implement a case management system that assists
refugees from date of arrival to the 2-year-mark; 2. create a system to train,
certify, manage and support volunteers; and 3. create a system to develop the
capacity of refugee community organizations to more effectively help their
communities. The website should be of help in each of these areas. Volunteer
information and managing tools can be found here. Community organization
building materials will soon be included, and more information than anyone could
possibly want regarding case management will be a click away.
I have been impressed, during my short tenure, by the amazing amount of good
will that people from all walks of life in Utah have toward refugees. I hope
this website serves us all well and is effective in leveraging this support.
kind regards, Gerald
Director's Bio
Gerald Brown
Director, Refugee Services Office
Utah Department of Workforce Services
Born in North Carolina, USA
Graduated from the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill in 1974 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology
1976-1978, lived in Cairo, Egypt where he worked with
young people through the YMCA of Egypt and the YMCA of Cairo
1978-1979, taught English and studied Mandarin in
Taichung, Taiwan
1981-1984, worked as a refugee resettlement case
worker, then a refugee resettlement case work supervisor, and then a refugee
resettlement job developer in Houston, Texas
1985- 1994, director of the national resettlement
program for one of the national volags which resettle refugees through the
Department of State
Also during this time (1985-1994), worked with Bosnian
refugees while on assignment with the UNHCR in Croatia and worked with Iraqi
refugees while on assignment in Saudi Arabia
1994, worked with Haitian and Cuban refugees in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
1995-1998, worked as an Asylum Officer for the U.S.
INS in the New York City office; featured in the award-winning PBS
documentary, A Well-Founded Fear
1999, worked with Kosovo refugees in Macedonia while
on assignment with the International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2000-2008, Senior Program Analyst for the Institute for Social and
Economic Development (ISED), a non-profit refugee services policy and
technical assistance organization based in Washington, D.C. Provided
technical assistance to Office of Refugee Resettlement grantees, focusing on
refugee community organizations
Wife is Mary Deiss Brown, attorney
Son is Jack Cisco Brown, 11 years old
