The International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City has dedicated the past two years to helping over 600 Afghan evacuees resettle to Utah after fleeing upheaval in Afghanistan at the end of 2021. The Hilal family is one among the many families who graduated from the IRC programs. Ayazudin and his wife came to the United States with their six kids. They remember packing their life into just four bags and escaping to the U.S. with $100 total in their pockets.

Win Tin and his family were resettled in Dallas from Thailand in 2015. He is in the eleventh grade at Emmett J. Conrad High School. This past summer, Win Tin participated in the Youth Food Justice Internship at the IRC in Dallas, and was asked to write about his experience.

The IRC in Northern California is pleased to provide our local and national partners with opportunities to engage directly with our programs in a meaningful way. Through volunteer events, small corporate groups work together to deliver their unique assistance and expertise directly to the IRC's refugee and asylee clients. All activities can be paired with an education session that teaches participants the basics of refugee resettlement.

Refugees and asylees often face difficulties in resuming their careers once resettled in the U.S. The IRC in NY is working with an extraordinary Special Immigrant Visa holder, Tamana, to rebuild her career in education.

Sacramento is the largest resettlement location for refugees in the nation. Twelve teams made up of refugees from Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Syria, played soccer at World Refugee Day at Papa Murphy's Park on Wednesday, June 20, 2018.

Each year, A Taste of the IRC is an opportunity for our community to come together to learn more about the life-saving importance of the refugee resettlement program. For the first time, our California offices—in Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, San Diego, San Jose, and Turlock—are hosting a joint fundraiser to highlight our work across the state of California!

Community Sponsorship offers an exciting opportunity for a group of community members to support resettlement efforts and to engage in deeply impactful work with one of our family cases. Following the higher volume of arrivals experienced recently and an increase in community attention toward assisting refugees, IRC in San Jose is seeking volunteer groups who are interested in becoming Co-Sponsors.

Housing volunteers at the IRC in Salt Lake City are crucial to the resettlement process! When refugees arrive in Utah, they are able to walk into a furnished home with all their essential needs to start out their lives here. Learn more about members of our housing support team: Jill Baker, Rob Kain, and Holli Turner.

The IRC in Phoenix is committed to bringing our refugee clients from harm to home. As a part of that commitment, we provide them with necessities – such as clothing and household items – they will need to start rebuilding their lives here. To do this, the IRC relies on donated items from community partners that are passed into the hands of our clients free of charge either through our Resettlement Shop or as part of an initial apartment setup.

Each year on June 20th, the world celebrates World Refugee Day. This day honors those forced to flee their homes and courageously resettle in new lands. In San Jose, welcomers from across Santa Clara County will come together to celebrate the area’s rich cultural diversity and proud history of welcoming immigrants and refugees. Additionally, to further demonstrate San Jose's welcoming spirit, the IRC in San Jose is seeking community support for our 2024 World Refugee Day Donation Drive for kitchen supplies to help our new neighbors feel at home in their new homes!