Refugee and Immigrant Voices in Action (RIVA)

Riva americorps (formerly rise americorps) is an iowa-based national service program that strengthens the economic capacity and self-sufficiency of immigrants through community service. Riva americorps addresses barriers to economic opportunity and advancement for refugees and immigrants. Barriers may include literacy (e.g. Digital, tech, reading), language, lack of familiarity with hiring processes (e.g. Applications, cover letter, interviews), lack of networking opportunities, among others. Americorps members assist community members with workforce readiness education, training and support services so individuals can develop skills, gain confidence and become assets in their community for those facing similar hurdles to opportunity and stability. Riva americorps also helps to bridge the gap between chronic work shortages across the state and an untapped wealth of talent in the Refugee and Immigrant communities.

The health equity campaign emphasizes building the power of people at the grassroots level to demand and win health system policy change and address barriers to care for Immigrant and Refugee community members. The key areas of focus for the campaign are vaccine uptake, mental health, social determinants of health, medicaid and support services to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by organizing with an intersectional approach and forging relationships with a network of diverse stakeholders, several coalitions have successfully been formed to reach multiple populations that will benefit greatly from advocacy and increased access to social services. Forged at the outset of the covid-19 pandemic, these coalitions have hosted clinics, expanded vaccination opportunities, disseminated at-home testing kits, provided training, curated a library of multilingual educational resources, and supported local health departments.

Embarc programs serve diverse ethnic groups from burma to provide essential linguistic and culturally appropriate services to Iowa Refugee and Immigrant community members through peer-to-peer education, case management, systems advocacy, and community development. Specific areas include (1) early childhood parent and family support; (2) crisis advocacy and referral services; many clients also received employment navigation support and increased wages; and (3) esl citizenship classes to assist with citizen applications.