LIRS Launches New American Cities Program with Support from ICONIQ Impact and Lever for Change

Earlier this 12 months, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service was acknowledged as one of many high 5 finalists for the Larsen Lam ICONIQ Affect Award, a funding alternative created to help a brighter, extra sturdy future for refugees. The group’s proposed mission, New American Cities, would supply a chance to rebuild for each new People and the cities they name house by financial empowerment, social mobility, and the promotion of various, inclusive communities.

The winners of the Award and extra grant funding have been introduced in Could. Although it didn’t take house the highest prize, LIRS’ New American Cities mission obtained $1.25M in funding from donors within the ICONIQ community and past.

“We’d like to precise our honest gratitude to Lever for Change and ICONIQ Affect for the chance to compete for this award and for serving to us elevate the visibility of our New American Cities mission,” stated Andrew G. Steele, Vice President for Growth and Outreach at LIRS. “We’re particularly grateful to our funders, nameless and in any other case, who’ve given us this funding and the power to launch this transformative program. We really imagine that the New American Cities mannequin can essentially change refugee resettlement on this nation. That is only the start.”

New American Cities is a response to a elementary drawback within the refugee resettlement system. When refugees arrive within the US, they obtain a couple of months of fundamental companies, akin to authorized safety and job placement, designed to assist them acclimate to a brand new nation, new tradition, and sometimes a brand new language. However whereas these companies are wanted, they’re woefully insufficient and don’t sufficiently equip refugees to anticipate and navigate the systemic challenges to long-term financial and social inclusion that they are going to encounter of their new communities.

The proposed mission builds upon LIRS’ New American Pathways (NAP) program, which was piloted in 2019 with the intention of bridging that hole. NAP was supported by the Walmart Basis and offered profession upskilling and development to refugees and different immigrants across the nation, permitting them to maneuver from survival jobs into significant careers.

On account of the NAP pilot program, contributors’ wages elevated by a mean of 62 %. 81 % of contributors who have been positioned in jobs began of their profession pathway, and 84 % of contributors positioned in jobs have been positioned in upskilled positions.

The New American Cities program builds upon that success by together with not solely individualized profession navigation companies for refugees, but additionally connections to pathway builders who forge relationships between refugees and employers, expose coaching alternatives, and intention to deal with systemic limitations to development. The mixing course of is buttressed by a community of coalitions and champions who will problem damaging narratives about refugees and create alternatives for social connections on the office, within the neighborhood, and past.

“At LIRS, we perceive that resettlement system in our nation has its flaws and calls for adjustment and, in some situations, revolutionizing,” stated LIRS CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah. “We imagine that New American Cities will enable us to vary the lives of its refugee contributors, essentially shift nationwide and native narratives associated to refugees, and create an progressive, inclusive framework that can help 1000’s extra refugees to return.

This funding affords us the possibility to really reimagine resettlement – to rework the system from providing refugees merely an opportunity to outlive, to creating the pathways that enable them and the communities they dwell in to thrive.”

To study extra about the way you or your basis can help New American Cities, contact LIRS Company and Basis Relations Specialist Leah Johnson at ljohnson@lirs.org.