Programs for Refugees and Asylum Seekers

Case Management to help Refugees and Asylees
Job Preparation for Refugees and Asylees
Training Program
Spiritual Care Givers

Refugee Immigration Ministry provides community-based services for its clients. This support allows them to find employment as soon as they receive work authorization, builds social capital upon which they can stand to enter the community and offers them friendship and support at the most vulnerable time of their lives.

Services for Refugees and Asylees

People seek asylum when their own government can no longer protect them from threats to their lives. Once released into the community, they are free to begin their lives, but often lack the resources to effectively do so. It has been reported that there are asylees moving from shelter to shelter and that there are teenagers struggling with little support to go to school and create a life here. With our help, they can become contributing members of our communities.

RIM Clusters are currently in (Massachusetts): Cambridge-Brookline, Chelmsford-Billerica, Metro-North, North Shore.

For more information about how your congregation might participate in an existing or new Cluster, please call the RIM office at the number below.

If you are interested in joining a cluster, visit our Get Involved page.

Case Management to help Refugees and Asylees

All of RIM's services are steered by Case Management planning. RIM works with clients to assess their needs and make appropriate referrals for legal services and health care. RIM has a contract with the State of Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants to work with new asylees and refugees. RIM also provides case management services to clients placed in Clusters.

Job Preparation for Refugees and Asylees

RIM offers ESL classes and computer classes to clients while they are waiting for work authorization.

Training Program

RIM offers training to persons wishing to work with immigrants. This training covers: cross-cultural issues, trauma, legal services, and active listening skills. Those who complete the training visit detainees as Spiritual Care Givers. Components may be offered to businesses and other organizations. RIM also trains volunteers to tutor in English as a Second Language and in computer skills.

Spiritual Care Givers

By offering spiritual care in the detention facilities, those who have been forgotten and who are isolated by language are shown that the community has not forgotten.

Spiritual Care Givers are from many cultures, speak many languages, and go into the facilities to listen. Often it is not possible to offer anything but listening, but this tells a person that he or she has not been forgotten. 

This program is very important in the face of the 1996's Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act which calls for the incarceration and deportation of persons who have prior felony convictions. This harsh legislation, which even Congress now admits was unwise, separates families, punishes people who have already served their sentences, puts future generations at serious risk, and is wasteful of taxpayers money.

Many Americans are horrified when they realize how punitive this legislation is and want to do something. More than ever there is a need for Spiritual Care Givers to get into the prisons and let people know they are not forgotten. The Spiritual Care Givers program has been selected by the Detention Watch Network to become the model for the country for this kind of volunteer chaplaincy program.

RIM has trained over 80 people to be Spiritual Care Givers. They see an average of 50 persons per month through their visitation in several New England facilities.

Interested in becoming a Spiritual Care Giver? Call the RIM office for upcoming training dates and fill out our Spiritual Care Giver application today.