Program Visit – February 2-7, 2025

Through multipurpose cash assistance, we support families in need to help them cover their immediate needs such as food and shelter. 3,382 families have received multi-purpose cash assistance to cover immediate needs.

IRC offers care-givers in violent contexts effective services that raise awareness, support care-givers as well as case management for children who experience family separation, violence, exploitation abuse and neglect. 1,181 caregivers improved their abilities to provide positive parenting support.

IRC supports gender-based violence survivors through case management and the creation of specialty safe spaces, where people can be referred to vital services such as economic and legal support, health care, education, childcare and more. The response also focuses on child protection by offering caregivers in violent contexts support that raises awareness, as well as case management for children who experience family separation, violence, exploitation, abuse and neglect.

The IRC implements Research in Education for Transformative Opportunities (RETO), which identifies and transforms violence prevention evidence into actionable and scalable methodologies for key education stakeholders.

Through CuéntaNos, the IRC promotes access to reliable information and mapping of trustworthy service providers. CuéntaNos – part of the global Signpost project – is an online information platform created by IRC that leverages social media to offer information, a map of verified services, and direct referrals via a helpline for persons in crisis. People experiencing violence and disaster search to find verified shelter and protection services and speak to trained helpline moderator to coordinate and answer questions.

No-cost and low-cost quality services for refugees asylees, Dreamers, and other immigrant communities across San Diego County including:

• Legal services
• Citizenship and interview preparation
• Outreach programming

Community, skill and leadership building for refugees and immigrant youth including:

• REACH (Refugee Education, Acculturation, Civic Engagement and Health) Program
• Higher Education Financial Literacy Program
• Intergenerational Education Programs

The Center for Financial Opportunity provides comprehensive services to help clients achieve self-sufficiency and economic mobility.

•    Workforce and Integration: Assists clients in securing their first U.S. job through job readiness training, coaching, placement services, and financial education focused on budgeting, credit building, and asset growth, with specialized support for women.
•    Education and Training: Offers vocational ESL, digital literacy, and career advancement services to enhance critical skills.
•    Small Business Development: Supports clients in starting or strengthening businesses through training, technical assistance, and access to capital. 

Supports newly arrived refugees with initial services to integrate into their new communities with housing, furnishing, community orientation and assistance to essential services including:

• Refugee Resettlement and Placement Program Services
• Refugee Health Promotion Project

The Safety and Wellness Program offers intensive case management and support services tailored to asylum seekers, new arrivals, and non-refugee communities, focusing on culturally relevant food access and women’s empowerment.

•    Case Management: Provides tailored case management for new arrivals for up to 8 months covering benefits enrollment, healthcare and housing navigation, and mental health resources.  
•    RIPE Food Pantry: Provides culturally preferred foods for IRC clients using a monthly shopping model.  
•    Women’s Resilience Center: A collaborative, supportive space for refugee and immigrant women to build friendships and access support groups, wellness workshops, financial wellness guidance, and weekly movement sessions. 

Donor Delegation Trips are quarterly pre-planned, fee-based group trips of 5 to 10 participants to destinations prioritized based on funding needs and accessibility.

IRC puts forth the greatest possible effort to provide a safe and secure operational environment. However, given the nature of our work, participants on the trip may be exposed to healthcare risks, including but not limited to the risk of communicable diseases such as COVID-19. While IRC communicates and expects all operating partners to comply with and encourage appropriate safeguarding measures, the risk of COVID-19 and other potentially infectious diseases still exists. Visitors are required to review the medical guidelines that are provided by IRC prior to participating in the trip and to carefully consider them as they relate to your own medical profile and medical risk tolerance levels.

Because we are limited in the number of trip participants, we prefer to have each participant slot taken by representatives of different giving vehicles in order to maximize the impact of the delegation visit for IRC’s funding needs. After the visit, a trip summary, as well as photos and videos from the visit will be shared with all trip participants, which can then be shared with family, friends, and stakeholders of foundations and partners.

IRC cannot host children on our program visits because our Safety and Security measures are not designed with children in mind, and cannot reasonably be adapted to ensure children’s safety.

Immediately after you register, you will receive an email from the IRC's Program Visits team. This will be your primary contact for trip-related questions or concerns in advance of the visit. Before the visit, you will receive many resources to support your preparation process (see the response to the question below “Are there resources to help me prepare for the upcoming visit?”)

Trip registrants should assume that the itinerary shared with their invitation is the itinerary for their visit, for all intents and purposes. The itinerary is shared at this stage to help set expectations around the locations and program types to be seen, and the pace of the visit. Making changes to meet the interests of individual participants will make it impossible to set realistic expectations.

That said, the itinerary distributed with the invitation is tentative and subject to changes at any time due to circumstances out of our control, such as weather, politics or safety. The itinerary is designed by the hosting country and program teams based on accessibility of programs and priority of funding needs, with the objective of showing as many program highlights as possible.

We aim to avoid having idle time, ensure travel routes are safe and destinations are secure, and recommend flight arrival and departure windows to ensure the best experience.

Immediately after you register for your trip, you will be contacted by the Program Visits team. This will be your primary contact and provide any support you will need in advance of the visit, such as visa invitation letters, flight recommendations, and itinerary updates. Several weeks before your trip, you will receive a Pre-departure Briefing containing history of the regional crisis and IRC’s response efforts, IRC emergency contact information, packing list, safety precautions and cultural norms to be aware of, IRC reports and information sheets, as well as additional recommended readings. Several days before your trip, you will participate in a mandatory Safety and Security briefing with the Program Visits team and the local Security officer from the region you will be visiting.

During the registration process, we ask about any dietary restrictions or preferences. Within reason, most dietary needs can be accommodated during delegation trips and if for some reason this is impossible, the registrant will be notified in advance of the trip. Because IRC operates in many remote locations, there will likely be limited options for meal alternatives at some points during the trip, and therefore it is important to be prepared for the likelihood of meal repetition.

How to cancel: If you would like to cancel your participation in the trip, contact [email protected]. In your email, please indicate whether you would like a partial refund (see below for our refund policy) or prefer to donate your trip fee. In the case of a cancellation, the non-refundable deposit, and any additional donated portion of the trip fee, will be used as a donation to the hosting IRC country office and a thank you letter and tax receipt will be emailed to the cancelled registrant.

Refund policy: In order to register for the trip, a non-refundable deposit is required. This amount is different for each trip and can be found on the trip invitation and registration page. The deposit cannot be refunded for any reason, other than IRC has cancelled or postponed the trip. The remaining balance of the trip fee may be refunded if the registrant cancels more than 45 days prior to the trip arrival date. Within 45 days of the trip, IRC may have already incurred expenses related to domestic air and land travel, accommodations, and other non-cancellable charges, which the registrant may be held responsible for. Any refunds will be applied back to the credit card used to pay for the trip fee.

IRC will cancel a donor delegation program visit if the number of registrants does not meet the threshold for covering trip costs and allowing for a minimum donation size to the hosting country program. A visit may also be canceled due to unforeseen circumstances related to safety, or changes in the hosting country program staff capacity.

There are 8 spots available for this visit on a first come, first served basis. When the trip is full, a waitlist will open.