Local community organization steps up to support refugee families during COVID-19

Summer Learning in the Time of COVID

Ahmad and his success coach become “Zoomers” as they support each other through the pandemic.

Apoline and her success coach become “Zoomers” as they support each other through the pandemic.

While COVID-19 presents new challenges for the people we serve at the IRC in Seattle, community members are stepping up to help in new ways, as well. Meet our first cohort of virtual volunteers and interns.

With Santa Clara County seeing a continued upward trend in daily positivity rates for COVID-19, IRC San Jose has remained in full-remote work since mid-March. As we delved deeper into the summer of 2020, this reality made us question the future of Vision 2.0: Summer Job Academy (hereinafter referred to as Vision). Vision is an immigrant-female empowerment workshop aimed at allowing participants to learn about different career paths, to reflect on their personal goals, and to work towards envisioning themselves achieving their goals. Read further to see how we navigated the barriers posed by COVID-19 to still offer this workshop this summer!

An asylum seeker from El Salvador shares his experience migrating to the US, and how the IRC's Unaccompanied Children Program has helped him navigate the difficulties of resettling in a new city. “I think it’s great that an organization like IRC exists to support young people who are migrants like me.”

Read about our recent congressional engagement and how YOU can take action now to ensure we continue to welcome refugees -- today and always

It is with great pleasure that I share with you the news that IRC has welcomed Sarah Terlouw as the new executive director of the IRC Northern California offices. Sarah is not new to the IRC family. She most recently served as the country director for the IRC operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), consisting of 6 offices and a team of more than 700 staff across the country.

1 in 10 eligible voters are new Americans! The IRC is here to support with voter education to support naturalized citizens and eligible voters. If you are not eligible to vote, do not register to vote as it will have consequences on your immigration status. If you are not yet a U.S. citizen, contact the IRC's immigration services by calling or texting (408) 472-3675.