Listed in this page are web links to organizations, association, and groups that address issues that are important to refugee and immigrant integration in the United States. The resources are categorized according to topic. Please click on the links to see if they provide services in your local area.
If you know of a resource that you’ve found helpful and would like to share that information, please let us know by contacting Satyam Barakoti at 404-299-0180 x 226 or info@riwn.org
Resettlement All refugees are received and processed in the United States by nine non-profit agencies collectively known as the VOLAGS. They are the first point of contact for refugees. At a minimum, VOLAGS help refugees find housing, apply for public benefits, social security card. Many VOLAGS have extensive programs that meet the diverse needs of the refugees.
Immigrant Advocacy The National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR): NNIRR works to defend and expand the rights of all immigrants and refugees, regardless of immigration status. As part of a global movement for social and economic justice, NNIRR is committed to human rights as essential to securing healthy, safe and peaceful lives for all. www.nnirr.org
American Civil Liberties Union (Immigrant Rights): The ACLU is the nation's guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country. www.aclu.org/immigrants/index.html
This World Now: This World Now is and advocacy site with lots of relevant information on issues immigrants face. Immigrants and refugees can also write blogs about their immigration experience. www.thisworldnow.com
Health Where There is No Doctor: Where There Is No Doctor, is perhaps the most widely-used health care manual for health workers, clinicians, and others involved in primary health care delivery and health promotion programs around the world. http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download_wtnd.php
USDA Food & Nutrition Center: The Food and Nutrition Information Center (FNIC) is a leader in on-line global nutrition information. The FNIC Web site contains over 2500 links to current and reliable nutrition information. http://fnic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=4&tax_level=1
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Infectious and Chronic Disease): Find out up to date and accurate information about diseases and conditions. http://www.cdc.gov/diseasesConditions/
Office of Women’s Health (OWH): provide leadership to promote health equity for women and girls through sex/gender-specific approaches http://www.4woman.gov/
National Diabetes Education Program (NDEP): NDEP is a partnership of the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than 200 public and private organizations for Diabetes education and prevention.http://www.ndep.nih.gov/
Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital health care services, sex education, and sexual health information to millions of women, men, and young people. www.plannedparenthood.org/
American Cancer Society (ACS): The American Cancer Society is the nationwide, community-based, voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service. www.cancer.org American Heart Association (AHA): American Heart Association’s mission is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke. At AHA, you can find information related to health in multiple languages. www.americanheart.org
Center for Multicultural and Multilingual Mental Health Resource: A Multicultural Mental Health Brochure Series along with an Interactive CD educates mental health consumers, family members, service providers, and the general public. The Brochure Series covers both adult and children's mental health topics, which adapt and reflect the most relevant science-based publications and materials from the National Institute of Mental Health. www.cimh.org/Services/Multicultural/Information/Brochures-and-CDs.aspx
Tuberculosis: Find factsheets, educational materials, state TB Control Offices. http://www.cdc.gov/tb/
Feminist Women’s Health Center (FWHC): FWHC empower women through service, education, and advocacy. FWHC provides quality gynecological health care to women, promotes informed decision-making and participatory health care with access to the most current information, services, and technology and advances women's health and choices, including the choice of legal abortion, through both community and political advocacy. http://www.feministcenter.org/
DeKalb County Board of Health: The DeKalb County (Georgia) Board of Health works to protect and improve the health of those who live, work and play in DeKalb County. http://www.dekalbhealth.net/
Economic Empowerment/Employment 9to5 National Association of Working Women: 9 to 5 mission is to winning family-friendly policies, make nonstandard jobs voluntary and equitable, eliminating workplace discrimination through educating about legal rights on the job and oppose punitive welfare policies for women in the workplace. http://www.9to5.org
Education Minnesota Humanities Commission (MN Storytime Reading Guide): The reading guides have been developed for use by librarians, teachers, child care providers, parents, and anyone else interested in reading and related literacy activities with children and families. The guides contain many suggestions for sharing stories in a consistent easy-to-read format. The Humanities Center focuses on the humanities to build a thoughtful, literate, and engaged society through professional development for educators, literacy programs, and community partnerships. http://minnesotahumanities.org/programs/MNstorytime Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) : CAL is a private, non-profit organization: a group of scholars and educators who use the findings of linguistics and related sciences in identifying and addressing language-related problems. CAL carries out a wide range of activities including research, teacher education, analysis and dissemination of information, design and development of instructional materials, technical assistance, conference planning, program evaluation, and policy analysis. www.cal.org
The World is a Classroom: The World is Our Classroom is a venue for parents and students/children who are homeschooled to share their experience of learning. www.theworldisourclassroom.ca
Housing Mercy Housing (Refugee Housing Program): Mercy Housing, Inc. has been chosen by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide technical assistance to agencies within the national refugee resettlement network on issues related to refugee housing. www.refugeehouse.org
Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED): strengthens the social and economic well-being of individuals and communities. http://www.ised.org/splash/ised.htm
Credit Builders Alliance: We are a non-profit organization creating innovative solutions to help non-traditional financial and asset building institutions serving low and moderate income individuals build client credit and financial access in order to grow their businesses and/or personal assets. http://www.creditbuildersalliance.org/
Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault/Trafficking National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1800-799-7233 (SAFE) is a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year number. Hotline advocates are available for victims and anyone calling on their behalf to provide crisis intervention, safety planning, information and referrals to agencies in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV): NNEDV, a social change organization, is dedicated to creating a social, political and economic environment in which violence against women no longer exists. www.nnedv.org
Find a Domestic Violence Program: The listing provides information on all the domestic violence coalitions in all the states. By contacting the state domestic violence coalition, you can connect with a program that serves your area and your needs. http://www.ncadv.org/resources/StateCoalitionList_73.html Tapestri, inc. (Georgia): Tapestri, Inc. is dedicated to ending violence and oppression in refugee and immigrant communities, using culturally competent and appropriate methods. www.tapestri.org
Support to Families Legal Aid LawHelp: LawHelp helps low and moderate income people find free legal aid programs in their communities, and answers to questions about their legal rights. http://www.lawhelp.org/
Legal Services Corporation (LSC): LSC is the single largest provider of civil legal aid for the poor in the nation. LSC operates as a private, nonprofit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income individuals. LSC funds 137 independent nonprofit legal aid programs with 923 offices that provide legal assistance to low-income individuals and families in every congressional district. www.lsc.gov/
Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Maine (PTLA): PTLA is a nonprofit corporation by private attorneys in Maine to promote access to justice by providing high quality free legal assistance responsive to the immediate needs of individual low-income clients and to address the long-range barriers to justice affecting low-income people in Maine. www.ptla.org/ptlasite/index.html
Legal Guide for Immigrants to Maine: This site has information on many legal aspects of living in Maine. www.ptla.org/ptlasite/immigrants/english/index_html Legal Aid Georgia: Legal Aid Georgia is is a joint project of Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. and the Georgia Legal Services Program. Legal Aid Georiga provides free legal information and legal services. www.legalaid-ga.org/GA/index.cfm
Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network (GAIN): GAIN provides free legal representation in immigration matters to individuals seeking asylum or other relief from persecution in their home countries. www.georgiaasylum.org
Refugee/Immigrant Led Initiatives Media Sagal Radio Services is a community-based non-profit organization based in Georgia which broadcasts weekly radio programs in four different East African languages and English: Somali, Swahili, Amharic and Oromo. http://www.sagalradio.net/
Cultural Orientation Research Center (COR): The COR Center develops and disseminates materials that help refugee newcomers understand fundamental aspects of life in the United States: housing, community services, transportation, health, employment, and cultural adjustment. The COR Center also produces culture profiles on the people, history, and culture of different refugee groups to help U.S. service providers understand new refugee populations. www.cal.org/co
Multimedia (Movies/Documentaries) The New Americans (2004) Filmed over the course of four years, this award-winning documentary series that originally aired on PBS tracks the ups and downs of newly minted immigrants who are struggling to put down roots on American soil. The film captures the experiences of an Indian couple riding the dot-com boom, a pair of Nigerian families fleeing violence and political persecution, and two baseball players from the Dominican Republic, among other stories.
Federal/State Initiatives to Support Refugees The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR): The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) provides people in need with critical resources to assist them in becoming integrated members of American society. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/orr/
Georgia Department of Human Resource (Refugee Program): GA DHR is Georgia's human service agency whose mission is to strengthen Georgia families by providing services through about 80 programs that ensure their health and welfare. http://dfcs.dhr.georgia.gov/ Office of Women’s Health (OWH): provide leadership to promote health equity for women and girls through sex/gender-specific approaches http://www.4woman.gov/
Organizational /Community Development Spring Institute: Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning is a nonprofit, training and consulting corporation with a focus on language and culture. The Spring Institute works with people and organizations all over the world, enabling communication and increasing understanding, helping to turn cultural differences into assets.www.springinstitute.org Project Soar: Project Soar is a unit within The IRC that provides technical assistance in the area of organizational capacity building to ensure that the groups we assist accomplish their missions, serve their beneficiaries effectively and engage in long-term strategic planning. http://www.theirc.org/what/project_for_strengthening_organizations_to_assist_refugees_soar.html
Project South: Project South acts as a regional hub for leadership development, movement-building, and long-term strategy development within community-based organizing for racial and economic justice. http://www.projectsouth.org/
Women's Learning Partnership (WLP) is dedicated to women's leadership and empowerment. WLP is a builder of networks, working with 18 autonomous and independent partner organizations in the Global South, particularly in Muslim-majority societies, to empower women to transform their families, communities, and societies. http://www.learningpartnership.org
Refugee/Immigrant Youth Bridging Refugee Youth and Children’s Services (BRYCS): BRYCS is a national technical assistance program addressing challenges which refugee youth and children face in adjusting to life in the United States. Our fundamental purpose is to broaden the scope of information and increase collaboration among service providers for refugee youth, children and families. www.brycs.org
This World Now: This World Now is a site where immigrants and refugees can write blogs about their immigration experience. www.thisworldnow.com
Refugee Advocacy Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) : http://www.rcusa.org/ RCUSA is a coalition of U.S. non-governmental organizations focused on refugee protection. RCUSA provides advocacy on issues affecting the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced persons, victims of trafficking, and victims of torture in the United States and across the world.
Women’s Refugee Commission: The Women's Refugee Commission advocates for laws, policies and programs to improve the lives and protect the rights of refugee and internally displaced women, children and young people—bringing about lasting, measurable change. http://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/
Amnesty international (Refugee and Migrant Rights): Amnesty International campaigns for the rights of refugees, IDPs and migrants around the world and exposes human rights abuses and failures in their protection. Amnesty International is a worldwide movement of people who campaign for internationally recognized human rights for all. www.amnesty.org/en/refugees-and-migrants
U. S. Committee on Refugee & Immigrants (USCRI): addresses the needs and rights of persons in forced or voluntary migration worldwide by advancing fair and humane public policy, facilitating and providing direct professional services, and promoting the full participation of migrants in community life. http://www.refugees.org/
Nationalities Service Center (NSC): NSC’s mission is to protect legal rights, strengthen families and promote self-sufficiency, eliminate barriers created by language and cultural differences, and promote public awareness of the benefits of diversity in U.S. society. www.nscphila.org
