Community ties: South St. Louis suburb steps up Bosnian outreach

AFFTON, Mo. -- With a quiet apartment and a job as a school translator, life in suburban St. Louis is far different for Mirsada Burazerovic from when she burned shoes and clothes to heat her family's Sarajevo home and was frightened to send a child to school in wartime.

Burazerovic, her husband and children moved to St. Louis in 1996 as Bosnian refugees, and then to the south St. Louis County community of Affton within their first year. They sought a suburban life -- a neighborhood they perceived as safer than the city, with schools where they believed their children would learn better.

"We came here with $200 and three kids, and that's it," said the 42-year-old Burazerovic, who despite her American friends says Bosnians in the area often rely on one another when help is needed. "We can always count on each other. That's us."

Officials in this St. Louis suburb nevertheless are raising their efforts to make sure Bosnians become more closely tied to their new community. They want them to feel comfortable around police and confident in their neighborhoods and schools.

An estimated 40,000 Bosnian refugees currently live in the St. Louis region. South county regions like Affton have the highest populations of Bosnian residents outside of the city, and the unincorporated suburb is starting a new effort to better link new Americans, particularly Bosnians, to the community.

During the last decade, the surging Bosnian population helped reinvigorate city neighborhoods, but the demand also drove up housing values in some urban areas -- prompting some refugees to move to the county in order to get more house for the money.

So as people became more established and started buying cars, as many as 5,000 Bosnians chose Affton, said Ann Rynearson, vice president of culture and community at the International Institute of St. Louis, a service agency that helps refugees and immigrants.

Affton is the focus of a Department of Housing and Urban Development grant of about $200,000, awarded to the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Part of the money will be used to help Bosnians and other immigrants feel more closely tied to the community. The grant will promote volunteer work by students and Affton residents to help refugees and immigrants handle neighborhood problems and interact with officials.

Flyers will be printed in several languages with information on community and government services, and a photo exhibit will document the lives of new Americans in the city.

Community groups will be part of the effort and churches, schools and the police are already are working to meet the needs of a changing population.

The two school districts serving Affton report significant increases in their numbers of Bosnian students. Out of 1,555 students in the Bayless district, 405 are Bosnian. The Affton district has 2,550 students and 296 are Bosnian. Both districts report a steady increase in the numbers of Bosnians, with the greatest increase from 2001 to 2003 for Bayless and around 2000 for Affton.

"They'll ask for homework, grammar homework. They'll say, 'Can I have an extra sheet for my mother?"' said Teri Blackburn, English language learner coordinator for the Affton district.

Instructors also try to sort out issues beyond language learning. Bayless' ELL coordinator Dawn Thieman recalled working with one student who had a hard time expressing any interest in school.

"We found out this student was so traumatized by bombings and the war that he didn't speak his own language until he was 6 years old," she said.

Through an organization called the Christian Friends of New Americans, the Rev. Tony Boos with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod runs programs to link Lutheran churches in south city and county to refugees, many of them Bosnians.

He runs recreational programs and a summer camp that reach many Bosnian youth. Part of the effort is to let parents know the programs help to instill good values and discipline, he said.

"The children tend to rule the roost because they acquire the language skills much quicker than parents," he said.

While the programs allow children to have fun and spend time with one another, they also help them maintain respect for authority figures, he said.

St. Louis County police also are trying to strengthen ties to the Bosnian population. The police planned a citizen's academy last year with three nights to educate refugees about what to expect from encounters with officers.

Despite flyers written in Bosnian and English, publicity on a Bosnian radio show and at businesses frequented by the new Americans, only two people showed up for one night of the program.

"It's not hostility on the part of the refugees," Rynearson said. "It's just they're busy."