Charity Overview
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC is one of the oldest non-profit organisations providing global emergency relief, protection, advocacy, and resettlement services to refugees and other victims of oppression and violent conflict. As the largest non-sectarian resettlement agency in the United States, the IRC has resettled over 125,000 refugees since 1975. Through its network of 25 field offices, the IRC offers a wide range of services for refugees, asylees, and other new Americans, including job training, career counselling, English language instruction, cultural orientation, immigration services and nutrition programmes. These services are all supported by the hard work of thousands of dedicated volunteers.
Project Summary
Thanks to support from ICAP Charity Day 2013 in New York, the International Rescue Committee’s Immigration, New Roots, and Volunteer programmes have helped beneficiaries of the IRC to move from surviving to thriving.
At the IRC, we are proud to envision a brighter future for our clients. These vital initiatives are only possible because of the generosity of donors like ICAP. Thank you for your continued partnership, and for helping thousands of new Americans embark on the path to self-sufficiency, citizenship, and success.Gerrard Khan, Senior Director, Resource Acquisition and Management, International Rescue Committee.
Immigration - The Immigration Unit at the IRC headquarters in New York oversees the provision of high-quality, low-cost legal services and citizenship education to eligible clients such as refugees, asylees, and other immigrants. The IRC’s immigration programme helps qualified refugees and immigrants obtain lawful permanent resident status, apply for citizenship, attend civics classes to help prepare for the citizenship test, and reunite with family members. Over the past year, and thanks to funding from ICAP the IRC has served 12,845 clients, trained over 600 immigrant practitioners via webinars, workshops and conferences, and launched an IRC Immigration and Citizenship Services web page. IRC staff have served clients from 140 countries and completed 4,200 citizenship applications in the last year.
New Roots - An essential part of the IRC’s broader resettlement efforts, the New Roots programme enables refugees to re-establish their ties to the land, celebrate their heritage and sustain themselves and their neighbours by planting strong roots in their new communities. In 15 cities across the US, New Roots is transforming neighbourhoods by increasing the supply of and demand for fresh, culturally-desirable foods. The IRC helps to ensure this transformation through the development of farms and gardens, farmers’ markets, entrepreneurial training programmes and school-based food justice programmes. In the past year, the IRC New Roots programme has provided food system orientation and basic nutrition education to more than 6,500 refugees and other immigrants, produced more than $1.2 million in fresh produce through 40 IRC-supported community farms and gardens; and championed commercial sales of 140 producers. ICAP’s support helped make this possible.
Volunteer Programmes - Thanks to ICAP’s donation the IRC has also been able to expand its volunteering programmes. Each year approximately 3,500 IRC volunteers spend tens of thousands of hours helping refugees learn new skills, adapt to an unfamiliar new culture and prepare for employment in the United States. Over the past year, the IRC has benefited from the contribution of more than 115,000 volunteer hours. The IRC has also successfully enhanced the volunteer community website portal to include recruitment resources and mobile accessibility.
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