The Fiscal Year 2018 (FY18) refugee admissions level was set at 45,000—a historic low. Eleven months through FY18, the United States had only admitted 19,899 refugees—less than half this level.

Each year over half of the refugees resettled by the IRC in San Diego are children; in 2022 18% of new arrivals were under 18 years old. Having reached the US, their futures are brighter than the uncertainty, conflict and violence they left behind but as they enter the American education system, refugee youth face a unique set of barriers to academic success.

The International Rescue Committee in Los Angeles will soon begin an unprecedented initiative to improve housing, education and employment prospects for recently resettled Syrian refugees by enhancing collaboration between the state’s 22 resettlement agencies

On March 26, GenR Bay Area members volunteered to chaperone a group of refugees, mostly youth, youth to the California Academy of Sciences.

The IRC is thankful for our continued partnership with Starbucks, who has agreed to hire 10,000 refugees globally. Through these job opportunities, Starbucks is supporting clients as they rebuild their lives and integrate into their local communities. This month we want to highlight a success story from one of our own clients in Silver Spring who was recently hired by Starbucks.

As a way of tackling the ongoing displacement crisis and issues faced by these clients, the IRC is focusing on community engagement to help with the integration of resettled refugees into our local communities, through a new Co-Sponsorship Program. 

After years of upheaval and uncertainty, refugee & immigrant girls in the United States are ready to explore their path in life. Vision Not Victim supports these young women to envision their future and redefine what their communities and they themselves thought possible. Run by the IRC previously in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Jordan, the IRC in Northern California piloted the program in the United States over April's spring break in Oakland.

In February, refugee youth in the IRC in Silver Spring’s After-School Program learned the meaning and importance of civic engagement by participating in their first ever community service project at A Wider Circle in Silver Spring, MD. Youth toured the organization’s facilities, learned about the services it provides and people it serves, and then spent the morning helping with different projects, such as sorting books, folding clothes and moving furniture.