Through the four key areas below, ORR’s Refugee Resettlement Program helps refugees and other eligible newcomers achieve economic self-sufficiency, well-being, and successful integration in the United States. Under each category is a brief description of the goals and corresponding ORR-funded programs, which all provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services. Individuals can be screened for eligibility for these programs at the closest resettlement agency or other refugee-serving agency in their state. Note, not all programs listed are available in all areas. For more information, visit: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/programs/refugees.
HEALTH & BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Refugees achieve well-being and self-sufficiency through appropriate physical and behavioral health services and supports.
- Refugee Medical Assistance: Provides short-term medical coverage to refugees ineligible for Medicaid
- Medical Screening: Safeguards public health and supports healthy resettlement through initial domestic medical examination of arriving refugees
- Refugee Health Promotion: Promotes health through education, care coordination, and wellness groups
- Services to Afghan Survivors Impacted by Combat: Offers holistic, strengths-based, and trauma-informed services
- Survivors of Torture: Helps people who have been tortured in another country restore their health and dignity (Note: eligibility for services does not depend on a person’s immigration status, and there is no time limit for receiving services.)
- Support for Trauma-Affected Refugees: Provides holistic psychosocial services for trauma-affected refugees
EMPLOYMENT & ECONOMIC/SOCIAL STABILITY
Refugees are economically self-sufficient, connected to sustainable forms of income and economic mobility, and progressing toward their personal and professional goals.
- Refugee Cash Assistance: Provides short-term financial assistance to help refugees ineligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) to meet basic needs
- Refugee Support Services: Helps refugees connect to employment services that foster independence
- Matching Grant: Assists refugees to overcome barriers to self-sufficiency and rapidly find jobs
- Refugee Family Child Care Microenterprise Development: Helps refugees start and run family childcare businesses in their homes
- Wilson-Fish Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Coordination Program: Provides foundational case management to help refugee families with children to navigate barriers, become economically self-sufficient, and improve well-being
- Refugee Microenterprise Development: Provides loans and training to help refugees start, sustain, or expand a small business
- Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program: Supports refugees to lead rural farming and urban community gardening projects
- Individual Development Accounts: Helps refugees save toward an asset that will help increase financial independence
- Refugee Career Pathways: Enables refugees to secure employment in professional and/or skilled career fields
- Employer Engagement: Funds local organizations to create networks of employers and on-the-job training for refugees
SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT & INTEGRATION
Refugees build successful new lives in the U.S. by becoming actively engaged in their communities and gaining equitable access to and participation in social and economic systems.
- Preferred Communities: Supports refugees with unique vulnerabilities that require special attention
- Services to Older Refugees: Assists refugees aged 60 and older in gaining access to applicable services for the aging and provides appropriate services for older refugees that are not currently available in the community
- Ethnic Community Self-Help: Supports ethnic community-based organizations with culturally and linguistically responsive services
CHILDREN & YOUTH
Refugee children and youth achieve English language proficiency, access education to reach their academic and professional goals, and receive support to promote their social adjustment and integration in U.S. communities.
- Youth Mentoring: Matches eligible youth with mentors who support their successful integration and help them thrive as well as provides case management to support individual educational and career development goals
- Refugee School Impact: Helps refugee children from birth to age 18 prepare to succeed in formal schooling, promotes access to childcare, strengthens academic performance, and aids the social adjustment of newly arriving refugee youth and their families
- Unaccompanied Refugee Minors: Places unaccompanied refugee minors into a safe and nurturing foster care setting and provides case management to promote well-being and transition to adulthood