On January 6th, more than 100 refugee families who arrived in Washington this past year received a warm welcome to our community! Hundreds of community members joined us for the Winter Welcome Festival, where we celebrated the new year together with food, games, gifts, and lots of fun!

Earlier this year, the IRC in Atlanta’s Adult Education team added new weekly free English classes in Gwinnett County in partnership with OneStop locations. The classes are held at OneStop Norcross and OneStop Buford and both sites have a beginner and intermediate class. Classes are offered every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10am-12pm and from 6-8pm.

At the end of June, the IRC in Utah, alongside Summit Journeys and other partners, held an outdoor summer camp for refugee youth from across Salt Lake County—for many, it was their first outdoor camp.

The IRC in NJ held its 7th annual Refugee Youth Summer Academy this year. The 3-week summer academy was held at Kean University, with over 100 newly arrived students in attendance!

The FSP Learning and Insights paper developed by the Re:Build Program in collaboration with Open Capital offers valuable insights and promising outcomes of a deep assessment of the financial inclusion of urban refugees in Nairobi and Kampala. In this evidence-based research, we found effective strategies to promote financial inclusion and empower refugees towards economic stability and ultimately self-reliance.

With the support of the David & Lucile Packard Foundation, the IRC piloted a new approach to increase access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care for adolescents in Goma, DRC. This report highlights the strategy developed to address foundational facility and community-level barriers that prevent adolescents from accessing and receiving quality SRH services.