Home for Refugees USA

Our Home Team program includes four pathways for welcoming refugees we use the term "refugees" as an umbrella term for the forcibly displaced. The first is a co-sponsorship pathway where refugees and SIVs resettle through a Resettlement Agency RA and we lead the co-sponsorship teams in partnership with the RA. The second is our Asylum Asylum-Seeker and Humanitarian Parole pathway which focuses on leading our teams while they walk alongside the most vulnerable those with limited access to resources. The third is our PCHNV and Ukraine Sponsor Circles pathway and the fourth is our Welcome Corps pathway the new U.S. private sponsorship of refugees program. We form teams of volunteers from faith and community groups who will partner with the refugee family or individual to provide wrap-around support. We recruit train and match Home Teams with refugees and then coach them as they work with the family for three months to one year. The purpose of these teams we refer to as Home Teams is to build safe trusting and consistent friendships with new refugees SIVs asylees asylum-seekers parolees. Our teams through the context of these friendships provide support to the individual or family to navigate social services healthcare and food distribution when social services are not or no longer available. The teams also help with schooling needs enroll the family in ESL classes teach them how to use municipal and other alternative transportation find job development and employment sign up for low-income housing access local support services and locate resources for their religious faith. We see these men and women gain a practical understanding of how to access needed resources and services learn how to manage their finances and have a baseline understanding of the United States' culture and workplace expectations. We also consistently see that after working with a Home Team these men and women have more successfully resettled in the United States because of their reduced stress levels deep friendships with our volunteers and ability to help others who come after them.

UC Irvine School of Nursing partnership teaching program. We assist with an elective course that exposes students to vulnerable populations and training them to assist with the medical needs of individuals and families. This has helped dozens of refugee families receive healthcare advice and better understand the healthcare system in order for them to be empowered to make decisions on their own.