USCRI May 2022 Updates

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** May 2022 Newsletter
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FOR OVER 110 YEARS, ADVANCING THE RIGHTS AND LIVES OF REFUGEES AND IMMIGRANTS
LEGAL SERVICES CAMPAIGN

Thanks to a very generous seven-figure gift from an anonymous donor, USCRI is excited to announce the launch of our Transforming Afghan Lives (TAL) Program. The donor was moved by the plight of thousands of Afghans who evacuated Kabul and were resettled in the United States and wanted to do something to assist. So, working through their community foundation, they decided to support our work and fund a rapid expansion of the services we are able to provide Afghans in the U.S. For that, we are so very grateful.

With this gift, the donor demonstrated trust in USCRI and our staff. How we are able to better serve Afghans was left to us to decide, allowing us to determine where the largest needs for assisting the most Afghans were, and to create programming to meet those needs. USCRI has spent the last several weeks performing a situational analysis and needs assessment. The process led us to focus on three priority areas: legal services for Afghans; assistance to Afghan women and children; and technology needs for Afghan families in the U.S.

Partially funded by the TAL Program, USCRI will open all six new legal offices across the country in Denver, CO; Atlanta, GA; Detroit, MI; Austin and Dallas, TX; and Richmond, VA, by the end of June 2022. Additionally, we will be providing legal services at all of our resettlement field offices, only some of which currently offer legal services. USCRI also is working to meet the needs of our Afghan community members via our “Women Connect” program, which helps them build the skills and resources needed to achieve self-sufficiency and community integration. By significantly expanding these efforts, thanks to the TAL Program, early intervention in the lives of these newcomers will have positive, long-term impacts on the Afghan families and the U.S. communities in which they live.

We are thrilled and grateful for the support from this anonymous donor, plus so many others across the U.S., who are helping us provide assistance, comfort, and skills to our newly arrived Afghan neighbors.

Kevin Sturtevant, CFRE
Vice President, Strategic Development
USCRI
ASIAN AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH
We are excited to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month ([link removed]) in May, which was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869, given that the majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.

We would like to mark the occasion by featuring the remarkable story of Jason Lin, whose relationship with the USCRI Cleveland Field Office goes back more than 40 years. In 1975, Jason, his wife, and their two young children escaped as refugees from Vietnam one week before Saigon fell and were resettled by our field office in Cleveland. After working at Standard Oil in Terminal Tower, Jason and his wife opened Cleveland’s first Vietnamese restaurant, Nam-Wah. Jason has overcome much adversity on his way to becoming an international businessman. When his family first arrived, there were very few Asian people in Cleveland, and his family worried they wouldn’t fit in. While he has faced discrimination, Jason said he overcame it with “hard work and go-getter attitude.” Like many refugees, Jason initially worked two jobs to provide for his young family in their new country.

He became a U.S. citizen in 1981 and the family was adjusting well to their new community. In 1982, he was tragically injured, losing both his legs while helping jump-start a stranger’s car. But this did not stop him. Instead, Jason opened six more restaurants and spent the 1980s sponsoring and employing refugees from Southeast Asia. By the end of the 1990s, Jason owned restaurants in five countries and ran a successful international business importing goods from Asia.

To read more about Jason's story, please click here ([link removed]) .
USCRI Cleveland Field Office Director Darren Hamm with Jason Lin.
MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS MONTH

To mark Mental Health Awareness Month, we would like to shine a spotlight on the USCRI Texas Refugee Wellness Program, which provides Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and other wellness trainings to Texas-based organizations that interact with refugee and immigrant populations. MHFA is an evidence-based training that provides participants with knowledge on the common signs of mental health challenges among adults and youth, including depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and substance use.

The trainings equip participants with the tools needed to assist refugees and other individuals experiencing mental health challenges. The trainings incorporate discussion and opportunities to apply learned skills to allow participants that simulate appropriate responses to non-crisis and crisis situations. While MHFA is widely available, the USCRI Texas trainings incorporate refugee and immigrant specific content, including how trauma experienced during the migration process affects the wellness of refugees and immigrants, as well as cultural considerations around mental health stigma.

“It is vitally important for refugee service providers to know how to recognize the mental health needs of refugees, who have often had traumatic experiences in their home or host countries, as well as post-migration stressors,” USCRI Texas State Refugee Health Coordinator Jessica Montour said.

To learn more about the USCRI Texas Refugee Wellness Program, please contact [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
WEBINAR RECORDING
As millions of people face the reality of living with a mental illness each year, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) joined efforts on May 16, 2022, with the Climate Mental Health Network and the Migrant, Immigrant, & Refugee Rights (MIRR) Alliance during Mental Health Awareness Month to discuss climate displacement as a uniquely traumatic experience that has demonstrable mental health consequences during our webinar Uprooted: The Mental Health Impacts of Climate Displacement.

With experts in the fields of climate-displacement and refugee policy, climate psychiatry, and refugee mental health research, we explored the unique implications that climate-related displacement has on the mental health of affected populations.

Stay tuned for our upcoming events.

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HELP US MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is grateful to you for making it possible to further our mission. For more than 110 years, we have partnered with individuals like you to assist our new refugee and immigrant neighbors as they work to rebuild their lives in the U.S.

Your generous donation helps us provide food and shelter to refugee and immigrant families, legal services to families separated by conflict, as well as health services, English classes, employment support, and access to other much-needed resources to newcomers.

Together, we can transform lives. From all of us at USCRI, thank you very much!
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USCRI, founded in 1911, is a non-governmental, not-for-profit international organization committed to working on behalf of refugees and immigrants and their transition to a dignified life.

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Copyright ©2022 U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. All rights reserved.

U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
2231 Crystal Drive, Suite 350, Arlington, VA 22202
(703) 310-1130
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U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants . 2231 Crystal Drive, Suite 350 . Arlington, VA 22202 . USA