Even after refugees and asylum seekers have arrived in New York City, most who were fleeing a harmful or dangerous situation, may still not feel completely safe. This, coupled with the stress and uncertainty of the resettlement process can cause various mental health concerns in NYC’s migrant population.

This July, the IRC in NJ launched the Digital Literacy Program. This program sits under the Education & Learning Department and is led by the Adult Education Coordinator. Based on client feedback and general needs, the IRC in NJ decided to offer a series of modules that are specifically tailored to first-time/beginner digital users. This program is designed to provide user-friendly activities that make learning digital skills fun and accessible to clients of all ages and learning stages! 

Preethi Nampoothiri, the former deputy director at the IRC in Silver Spring, became the executive director of the IRC in Maryland on September 18th.

the IRC is dedicated to helping people affected by conflict access mental health and psychosocial support. We work to ensure that people can receive care and manage treatment for themselves and their families, from the earliest stages of crisis through recovery.

Hello, IRC Family, Friends, and Supporters! The IRC in Los Angeles is hosting its end-of-year WHV Donation Drive & Assembling Event on Saturday, October 28th between 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. We hope to collect specific items to make Welcome Kits for newly arrived refugee families. It is easy to help!

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) implemented an anticipatory action cash-distribution pilot among six agro-pastoralist communities in Northeast Nigeria, focused on reducing the damaging effects of flooding. Prior to the flood season of 2022, the IRC set up an early warning system with local hydrometeorological agencies to trigger pre-flooding cash distribution to resource-constrained communities vulnerable to flooding. The program aimed to improve the adaptive capacities of these communities through improved systems for information sharing about climate risks and severity, and resource access to undertake mitigation measures. Researchers measured the cost-effectiveness of a pre-flooding cash distribution triggered by the early warning system, as compared to traditional post-shock resource disbursement. 1,450 households were randomly assigned to receive pre- or post-shock distributions. Low cost transfer ratios, in addition to positive impact evaluation results, suggest that the pre-shock modality may be more cost-effective than business-as-usual post-shock transfers. The Anticipatory Cash project cost $695 per household receiving pre-shock cash transfers, which drops to $610 per household without system set-up activities. 71% of total group costs went to the cash grant itself. Similar cost-transfer ratios between pre- and post-shock groups suggest that the anticipatory cash response is just as cost-efficient as the post-shock modality.