The author is a CASP volunteer.
BRATTLEBORO-I was quite disappointed that Mary Kay Sigda didn't include reference to CASP, the Community Asylum Seekers Project, which was founded in 2016 as a small volunteer effort that offered legal, social, and community support to asylum seekers (vs. refugees) in southern Vermont.
Over the years, it has grown into a vital network helping individuals and families from around the world rebuild their lives in safety and dignity.
In 2022, the year the Ethiopian Community Development Council began its work in Brattleboro, CASP launched the Vermont Asylum Assistance Project (VAAP) to expand pro bono legal support, an initiative that has since become its own nonprofit dedicated to representing asylum seekers and mentoring future immigration attorneys.
I understand that Ms. Sigda was working in collaboration with ECDC in her position at World Learning and SIT ("what Brattleboro got right about refugee resettlement"), and I applaud that work. I get that she wanted to illuminate the work that the partnership does to help refugees in our community.
Partnerships are vital to supporting refugees and asylum seekers and the organizations doing that work need to recognize each other as well in solidarity, centered on the work that welcomes and assists those who come here seeking better and safer lives.
That's why it would have been appropriate and respectful to include a paragraph or sidebar about CASP.
Elayne Clift
Brattleboro
The author is a CASP volunteer.
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