Refugee and Entrant Assistance Discretionary Grants

Objectives: The objectives of these discretionary programs include: (1) building capacity for the placement of refugees in locations with good opportunities and providing specialized case management for vulnerable cases; (2) assisting low-income refugees with matching funds for individual development accounts and with financial literacy classes; (3) providing micro-credit to refugees interested in starting new businesses but unable to access commercial sources of capital; (4) providing agricultural training and opportunities to improve the local food systems for refugee farmers; (5) promoting integration; (6) assisting refugees to achieve career advancement; (7) assisting refugees to open family based child care businesses; (8) providing technical assistance to the refugee service providers; (9) providing employer based educational and language acquisition opportunities; and (10) and supporting the mental health needs of refugees affected by trauma This listing includes: Refugee Individual Development Accounts (IDA), Refugee Agricultural Partnership Project (RAPP), Refugee Family Child Care Microenterprise Development (RFCCMED), Refugee Career Pathways (RCP), Refugee Microenterprise Development (MED), Preferred Communities (PC), Ethnic Community Self-Help (ECSH), Refugee Technical Assistance Program (RTAP), Services for Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat (SASIC), (the soon-to-be launched) Support for Trauma-Affected Refugees (STAR) and Employer Engagement Program (EEP). Through the Refugee IDA Program recipients manage IDAs for low-income refugee participants. Eligible refugee participants will open and contribute systematically to IDAs for specified Asset Goals. The RAPP recipients develop strategies that incorporate agriculture and food systems to improve the livelihoods and economic self-sufficiency of refugee families, with particular emphasis on newly arrived refugees. RAPP requirements are to provide: 1) access to land; 2) farming production; 3) training and technical assistance (TA); and 4) coordination with the refugee resettlement community. The RFCCMED Program enables recipients to help refugees to achieve self-sufficiency by establishing small family child care businesses. The program provides refugee participants with training and TA; assists refugee participants in navigating the child care licensing process; and provides direct financial assistance as needed to enable participants to prepare their homes for child care business operation. Through the RCP Program, ORR provides funding to enable refugees to obtain self-sufficiency by obtaining the means to secure professional or skilled employment drawing upon previously acquired knowledge, skills, and experience. The overall goal of the Refugee MED Program is to assist refugees to become economically self-sufficient by 1) assisting refugees to establish microenterprise businesses through the provision of MED loans, Training and TA, and 2) assisting refugees in building credit history and/or repairing their credit score. The goal of the ECSH Program is to support Ethnic Community-Based Organizations (ECBOs) in providing refugee populations with critical services to assist them in becoming integrated members of American society. An ECBO as a non-profit organization whose board of directors is comprised of at least 60 percent current and/or former refugees. The PC Program supports the resettlement of especially vulnerable refugee groups at resettlement sites that PC service providers designate as “Preferred Communities.” The term refers to locations that offer excellent opportunities for the integration and resettlement of the most vulnerable newly and recently arrived refugees. The RTAP creates a national one-stop source or hub for refugee TA and training. This national hub provides coordinated, innovative TA and training to ORR-funded state refugee programs and ORR funded refugee service providers, filling gaps where no other such TA and training exists. The goal of the Employ