With Santa Clara County seeing a continued upward trend in daily positivity rates for COVID-19, IRC San Jose has remained in full-remote work since mid-March. As we delved deeper into the summer of 2020, this reality made us question the future of Vision 2.0: Summer Job Academy (hereinafter referred to as Vision). Vision is an immigrant-female empowerment workshop aimed at allowing participants to learn about different career paths, to reflect on their personal goals, and to work towards envisioning themselves achieving their goals. Read further to see how we navigated the barriers posed by COVID-19 to still offer this workshop this summer!

This policy brief offers ways the World Bank can standardize refugee inclusion across COVID-19 responses and continue to leverage financing for more inclusive national policies. The brief features case studies on Chad, Jordan, and Pakistan to spotlight different levels of inclusion across World Bank-funded COVID-19 response plans.

Refugee families, survivors of human trafficking and other vulnerable populations that we serve will be disproportionately affected by the impact of COVID-19 on our community in the coming weeks. Please donate to the IRC in Florida’s Crisis Prevention Fund and help us ensure our newest neighbors have the resources and services they need to get through this trying time.

Roughly 1 billion children worldwide are out of school due to school closures related to COVID-19. Children in humanitarian settings face a double crisis as the health emergency disrupts their opportunities to learn, develop and thrive. Ensuring children can continue to learn during the pandemic, no matter their access to technology, must be central to the COVID-19 response in fragile contexts.

Learn more about the IRC in Salt Lake City's response to COVID-19 in Utah, our efforts to ensure refugee families continue to receive the critical services they need, and ways you can help refugees in our community over the coming weeks and months.

The past year has presented many challenges for our community, but it’s also shown us the tremendous power we have when we come together as neighbors to support one another. Read about how the IRC - with help from our partners and supporters - has helped newcomer families cope with the health, social, educational, and economic impacts of COVID-19.

Coinciding with COVID-19, desert locust swarms in the Horn and East Africa may cause massive crop failure and food insecurity. Here's what you need to know