Community Immigration Volunteers Program

 
The Immigration Team recently recruited and trained 13 new Immigration Community Volunteers to help educate refugees and asylees on how to navigate the U.S. immigration system.  Silver Spring’s community volunteers are themselves refugees and asylees from countries such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, Iraq, Cameroon, and Bhutan and will be facilitating immigration workshops, disseminating immigration information to their respective communities, and assisting refugees in understanding the complicated immigration process.  On September 2nd volunteers participated in their initial orientation session and on September 15th they completed their in-depth immigration training.  They are now being trained how to effectively facilitate informational workshops and orientations at the IRC. By providing immigration education to refugees and asylees, these volunteers ease our client’s transition from being refugees or asylees to becoming new American citizens.