Resettlement
Meeting the basic needs for food, shelter and legal rights in the early, critical stages of resettlement.
Reception & Placement: Through a partnership with the Department of State, the IRC assists over 10,000 refugees to resettle in the U.S. every year. IRC staff and volunteers meet refugees at the airport and provide initial housing, furnishings, food, and clothing. Additional services include employment assistance, health and social service referrals, vocational training, English-language classes, and orientation to their new community. The IRC helps refugees to move towards self-sufficiency and integration in 22 U.S. cities.
Economic Empowerment
Protecting, supporting and improving household livelihoods and financial security.
Early Employment Services: The IRC provides vocational counseling, resume preparation, job search and placement services, and financial assistance for basic needs with the goal of helping refugees find their first job in America and achieve early economic self-sufficiency.
Women Life Skills Program: The IRC promotes self reliance by coaching economically vulnerable refugee women to meet basic needs, access community services, and improve their job skills. Many refugee women arrive in the U.S with minimal English fluency and face tremendous hurdles to entering the American workforce.
Refugee Cash Assistance: Refugee Cash Assistance enables participants to pay rent and utilities while they are concurrently enrolled in an employment program during their first four to eight months in the US.
Community Integration and Development
Strengthening communities and preparing individuals to participate fully in American society.
Community Integration and Development: Strengthening communities and preparing refugees to participate fully in the American society and in the communities.
Community Outreach Program: This program serves to educate and enhance the community’s understanding of refugee resettlement and generate resources for arriving refugees.
Volunteer Program: With over five times the number volunteers to IRC staff in the United States, volunteers amplify IRC’s ability to address the needs of refugees while insuring that they feel welcomed into their new communities. Volunteers support IRC’s programs by setting up apartments for new arrivals, helping refugees find employment, assisting with administrative work, and more.
Family Mentor Program: Family Mentors are volunteers that meet with assigned refugee families to practice English, assist with unfamiliar activities such as accessing public transportation, and provide a helping hand to welcome them into the community.
Services for Older Refugees: This program focuses on helping refugees over the age of sixty access healthcare and social services tailored to their specific needs. Further, participants receive support with English, financial planning on a fixed income, acquiring reliable medical information, and more.
Know Your Rights & Responsibilities: Founded in 2007 with the assistance of community volunteers, the IRC educates newly arrived refugees in the areas of reproductive health, hygiene, local school systems, parental rights, public transportation, accessing social services, and more.
Community Garden: With donations and assistance from community volunteers, several at-risk refugee families participate in the community garden project each summer. The garden provides nutritious food and serves as a therapeutic activity for refugees as they transition to a new country.
Children, Youth and Education
Providing educational and developmental opportunities that build the essential academic, personal and social skills needed to succeed.
Children, Youth and Education- Providing educational and developmental opportunities that build the essential academic, personal and social skills needed to succeed.
Refugee Youth Program: Designed to address challenges faced by refugee youth as a result of war, displacement, and disruption in education, the IRC organizes afterschool activities with community organizations and schools to integrate refugee youth into American society.
