International Institute St Louis

Case management & resettlement - see schedule ocase management & resettlement:services in this program area are short-term, generally lasting up to six months after program registration. Refugee resettlement services include airport pick-up; provision of housing and furnishings on arrival, food, clothing, and transportation. In addition to these basic needs, we provide case management, cultural orientation, linkages for initial health screenings, benefits enrollment, school enrollment, crisis intervention, and various community referrals. Staff members meet refugees at the airport, deliver them to housing rented for them, provide initial home orientation, and help them begin the process of building a new life in St. Louis. Depending on the needs of each refugee family, services can include referrals to registration for english classes for adults and public school for children, employment services, and state and federal benefits applications. Clients are assigned a case specialist of similar language and culture when available. In 2022, a total of 499 refugees were served, including 300 afghans, 112 congolese, and 25 syrian.

Education & citizenship - see schedule oeducation & citizenship:our programs help immigrants acquire the language and knowledge they need to meet challenges of their roles as members of their families, communities and workplaces. The high level of community need for these services is evidenced by the thousands of refugees and immigrants served annually with an average of more than 156 students in class on any given day. We provide a variety of educational programs specifically designed to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee adult learners, including core english to speakers of other languages (esol) classes and session-based citizenship preparation classes, each type with levels ranging from literacy to advanced and held weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings. We also offer basic computer on weekdays and career advancements trainings in 5-week sessions throught the year. Additionally, our teen programs provide tutoring and mentoring services to immigrant and refugee youth ages 14 to 24. The resulting numbers for 2022 evidenced a total of 542 served in esol classes and trainings, 71 prepared for us citizenship with 26 passing the citizenship test, 4 attended computer instruction and teen programs served 132 youth.

Community engagement - see schedule ocommunity engagement:community engagement focuses on creating a more welcoming through; 1) connecting St. louisans, the experience of new arrivals, 2) improving the cultural competency of customers and the wider community, 3) lead on issues, which impact refugees and immigration. Accordingly, we offer holistic services, which are focused on supporting immigrants and educating native-born members of the region. To help build a more inclusive community, the Institute produces the festival of nations, our region's largest multicultural festival that annually connects more than 150,000 visitors from across the region with the cultural traditions of newcomers and long-timers. The festival focuses on common cultural attractions, food, music, and dance and is, therefore, a highly entertaining opportunity for St. louisans to learn about and build greater appreciation for our community's growing diversity. The festival is also a valuable venue for other local non-profits to connect with these newcomers, who are difficult to reach through traditional media. As part of our community engagement activities, we offer tours to groups and volunteer opportunities that helps connect the wider community to our work. In 2022 we hosted an annual fundraising gala with over 250 attendees with a goal to raise funds and engage the audience with the long-term vision of the organization. We also organized 12 community monthly updates aimed at providing community stakeholders with an understanding of our work. In addition, we maintain weekly community stakeholder meetings critical to mobilizing the organization's partners and volunteers to support newly arriving refugees and immigrants to St. Louis. We also maintained a strong social media presence, inspiring the community to support our work. All through the year, several media stories reported on the activities of the International Institute especially related to ukrainian arrivals, the afghan community support program, and the launch of the anna e. crosslin center for multicultural excellence. We also provided significant language services to support service delivery to our clients but also to a wide range of customers across the region.

Social work & health services: social work staff provide intensive services to eligible foreign-born populations experiencing complex adjustment issues, simultaneously reducing access barriers to necessary services. Program services focus on: screening/assessment, case management, individual therapy, life skills and literacy education, emotional support, and socialization.social work staff provide individual, group and family-centered services with an emphasis on post-traumatic stress; grief, depression and other responses related to migration-related trauma. Populations served include individuals experiencing challenges with such issues as: aging, medical, mental health, crime (i.e. Domestic violence), disabilities (i.e. Physical, developmental), family conflict, and trafficking victims. In 2022, we provided services to 228 refugees and immigrants. We are a founding member of the care access for new americans (cana) mental health referral system for foreign-born individuals with the St. Louis mental health board (mhb). Anti-trafficking staff manage and support the eastern missouri/southern Illinois rescue and restore consortium. The consortium is a collaborative of four networks, which conduct outreach and education to identify trafficking victims.