Lauren Swain, founder of the Refugee Advocate’s Media Project (RAMP) at Mind’s Eye Productions, discussed the merits of video as a tool for multilingual refugee orientation, professional development, and public awareness. Some of the advantages highlighted include the special capacity of video to deliver consistent, comprehensive, and compelling messages in a very short period to audiences of any size, in any location, while reducing staffing and scheduling demands. This tool is especially advantageous for schools serving refugee populations. Multilingual school orientation videos reduce the need to hire interpreters to provide refugee families with the information they need to help students function well in the new school environment. By presenting the video to all newcomer refugee parents, schools and agencies can reduce problems that result when newcomer refugee families are not informed of school policies regarding attendance, behavior, health, and other critical areas of concern.

Swain presented clips from videos she produced for the Denver Public School Refugee Family Engagement Project: School Orientation for Newcomer Families and Professional Development for School Staff. She also shared her tips for producing and implementing video projects.

Some important considerations for video production presented were (a) that effective video tools can be produced for almost any budget, (b) that careful planning and coordination reduce the cost and time the production requires, and (c) that multilingual videos have special budgetary and logistical considerations of their own.

Important considerations for implementing video tools presented were (a) that an outreach effort for the completed video must be planned from the inception of the project, (b) that plans must be made for teachers and/or other service providers to show the video to the appropriate audience on a regular basis, and (c) that protocols should be established to inform new staff at schools and stakeholder organizations about the video and ensure that DVDs or the Internet link are always readily available to all interested parties.

Swain engaged the audience in a discussion of the informational needs of refugee families and the school staff who serve them. The audience responded that school staff should be made aware that refugees are in the country legally and that they have language and cultural barriers that may prevent them from responding to communications from the school. It was also noted that refugee families need to know that the schools can provide interpretation for meetings with staff, and that schools have access to many important resources to help meet the needs of the whole family.

Swain and her production company, Mind’s Eye Productions, contract with nonprofits and government agencies to create DVDs and online video tools for refugee service provider training, public awareness, and newcomer refugee orientation. Her refugee orientation videos are translated into the most common refugee languages and voiced-over to accommodate viewers of all literacy levels.

In addition to creating the Denver Public Schools’ Refugee Family Engagement Project videos School Orientation for Newcomer Families and Professional Development for School Staff, Swain has written, directed, filmed, and edited three multilingual health orientation videos: Your 3 Visits to the Refugee Health Clinic, How to Use the Health Care System in Colorado, and Pregnancy and Family Planning in the United States for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Swain is currently producing a multilingual refugee family school orientation video for Arizona’s Refugee Resettlement Program.