Program Design and Modeling

Partners expect ISED to identify emerging trends and incorporate promising practices. ISED expertise cuts across multiple but related disciplines, including microenterprise, refugee integration, welfare-to-work strategies, agriculture, and micro-lending. ISED staff appreciate that innovative techniques from one field hold promise for others.

This multidisciplinary approach has, over the years, enabled the Department of Health and Human Services to leverage the integration potential of individual development accounts for resettled refugees and facilitate the development of an MOU between the Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.

Current program design and modeling projects include:

• Exploring data-driven methods of refugee resettlement placement
• Utilizing regional ethnic self-help networks for long-term refugee community integration
• Promoting agriculture as a means of refugee economic self-sufficiency
• Mapping the facets of refugee integration
• Designing linguistically and culturally appropriate tools for refugee financial literacy