Atlanta Women’s Foundation Awards Grant to Help Refugee Women Escape Poverty

IRC Atlanta is pleased to announce that it was recently awarded a $30,000 grant from the Atlanta Women’s Foundation for its successful Women’s Instruction for Lifetime Empowerment (WILE) program. The WILE program provides intensive job readiness and English language instruction to refugee mothers who are the sole caretakers of their children so that they can gain the skills needed to become employed in the American workplace.

Ellen Beattie with Atlanta Women's Foundation board members Lauren Grien and Cindy Brazell.
Photo: Ana Laura Araya

Comprised of 35 hours a week of intensive instruction in job skills activities, vocational English, financial literacy, computer literacy, and life skills, WILE matches each mother with a dedicated employment specialist, who provides her with job coaching and placement services to help ensure that she successfully obtains employment. The program has been in operation for three years, and for many of its participants who graduate, it is a transition to the first formal job experience they have had.

At the recent grant award ceremony, Atlanta Women’s Foundation board chair Cindy Brazell stated that the 16 grants awarded to metro Atlanta organizations were for programs at were truly “best in class” among their peers.

This is the second year in a row that IRC Atlanta has received a grant from Atlanta Women’s Foundation, bringing to $60,000 their investment in IRC’s work to help refugee women achieve economic success.

“The Atlanta Women’s Foundation invests in women to end generational poverty,” says Ellen Beattie, Executive Director for IRC Atlanta. “By supporting our WILE program, they are helping to improve lives and empower not only the refugee women who participate, but also their children and their children’s children.”

IRC Atlanta is proud to continue its partnership with the Atlanta Women’s Foundation.