IRC in Silver Spring welcomes new executive director, Preethi Nampoothiri

During the 2022 Utah Legislative Session, the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake City worked with a variety of partners to raise awareness and advocate alongside refugee, immigrant and new American communities living in the Beehive State.

Want to spread the word about making #RefugeesWelcome and also contribute more? There are various, creative ways to accomplish these goals simultaneously.

Join our team of volunteer mentors having a transformative impact on newly arrived refugee high school students.

The IRC in Atlanta's free English classes are back in person! Offering flexible schedules and both online and in-person classes, these English classes for refugees and immigrants are complemented by an early childhood education program, ensuring families can improve language and literacy skills together.

Five years ago, Maria was a 26-year-old single mother of two living in Honduras. After fleeing for life and being granted asylum in the U.S., Maria received assistance from the IRC in Baltimore and was able to reunite with her two sons this year.

Since coming on board as a English as a Second Language (ESL) Volunteer in 2016; IRC volunteer, Sheri has gone to great lengths to make the ESL classes a warm and inviting place where IRC clients are comfortable and actively  engage in classroom activities. Sheri works tirelessly to ensure that every detail attended to, always going the extra mile to add improve lesson plans and develop special activities that students have come enjoy.

In February, the IRC in Salt Lake City, alongside community partners, hosted two virtual events, the Food Entrepreneur Round Table and the New American Dream Lab, to engage refugee and new American entrepreneurs. The events were generously sponsored and presented by Comcast.

Among the many challenges that 2020 brought to many around the world, the closing of international borders and travel restrictions as a result of the pandemic further limited the already dwindling number of refugees accepted by the Trump Administration. Prior to the pandemic, the Trump Administration had reduced the number of refugees the United States was committed to welcoming. At the onset of the pandemic, the arrivals of refugees to Tallahassee halted altogether, and it wasn’t until the end of 2020 that new families began to arrive across Big Bend communities. This time, the newly arrived families were coming from Latin America. This was a first for the IRC in Tallahassee’s short four-year history, which has historically welcomed families from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria.