Dear Friends and Supporters:
Since opening its doors in January 2006, the International Rescue Committee in Boise has grown from a small office team of five resettling small numbers of refugees to a diverse and dedicated team of 17 staff.
The IRC in Boise provides newly arrived refugees with social services, medical case management, job readiness classes and job placement, women and youth programs and a host of other activities to support refugee wellbeing and integration into the Boise community.
To date, the IRC in Boise has resettled nearly 1,000 refugees into Boise coming from Afghanistan, Burma, Bhutan, Burundi, Iraq, Sudan, Congo, Uzbekistan, Russia, Somalia and a host of other countries. Refugees bring with them a desire to build a new life along with a wealth of cultural and linguistic diversity that adds to the richness of the Boise community.
The economy has not slowed down our efforts to help refugees secure a new life in Boise and surrounding communities. The Boise team is tireless when it comes to meeting the needs of refugees, especially in helping them achieve employment in this tough economy. Through ingenuity and perseverance the IRC Boise team has placed over 100 refugees into work in the dairy and food processing industries in the past few months. The placement of refugees at the Three Mile Canyon Dairy in Boardman, Oregon led to nationwide news coverage and stimulated corporate interest in hiring refugees as a legal, hardworking, workforce.
To address the financial needs of these families for housing security, we generated a special appeal for Emergency Housing Assistance which raised a large amount of contributions. We are so grateful for the community to help refugees during these difficult economic times.
Leslye Moore
Executive Director
