The IRC hosted its first-ever green card workshop for 30 community members. A hard-working group of interns worked alongside IRC immigration specialists to complete a month's worth of green card applications in just one day!

The IRC’s Refugee Youth Summer Academy is a program designed to help newly arrived students understand and become accustomed to public schools in the U.S. The program works with students of all ages to thrive in a new culture by exposing them to American teaching styles and subjects.

One of the easiest and most impactful ways to welcome refugees to your community is to pull together your networks and social groups through a fundraiser. Now more than ever, individual private support is crucial to the work we do in resettling refugee families and our work with the immigrant community. Raising funds through group efforts with your friends and family is a great help as we head into uncertain times.

Since May 2017, KindWorks has worked with the IRC in Silver Spring to set-up and furnish apartments for three newly arriving refugee families. Their efforts to engage local volunteers provides invaluable support to new refugee families and makes refugees feel welcome in our community.

The Barikzai family sacrificed their safety to help the U.S. in Afghanistan. Now, they’re making a new life here.

“This work has put it all in perspective for me. What I once only read about or heard about in the news, now has a face to it. The struggle refugees and immigrants go through, how much they want to contribute to their new country – they just want a normal life. A safe life.”

The Immigration Program at the IRC in Silver Spring, celebrates Mrs. Meazu Gobena, a longtime IRC client. Mrs. Meazu became an American citizenship in the Spring of 2017.

The City of Turlock aims to provide a warm welcome to new refugee arrivals. On Refugee Civics Day, refugee clients and interpreters of the IRC are invited to engage in conversation about the city's inner workings and practical skills like how to dial 9-1-1. Refugee families who have fled war and persecution are made to feel safe for the first time in many years are they arrive on U.S. soil. Refugees from Afghanistan and Syria participated in the activities at Turlock City Hall and reflected on how far they had come since their initial resettlement and what they hope to achieve with their new chance at life.

In honor of National Human Trafficking Awareness Month in January, the IRC in Silver Spring sat down with Winifrida Kassembe, Anti-Trafficking Caseworker, to interview her about the office’s efforts to combat human trafficking in Maryland. The focus of the Anti-Trafficking Program is to ensure that survivors have access to protection and opportunities to achieve self-sufficiency through comprehensive case management, advocacy, education, collaboration, and capacity building.

Most of Mohamed and Mumina's family members made it to the U.S. in 2017, but some remain separated in Dadaab, Kenya uncertain when they will see their relatives again.