PROGRAMS

Social Adjustment

Social Adjustment services are provided to help refugees assimilate into their new lives in the U.S. and to encourage self-reliance so that individuals and families can successfully navigate similar situations in the future. Social adjustment services include:

Leadership

Leadership Training gives refugee and immigrant women the skills and confidence to be advocates for themselves, their families, and their communities. The goals of the Leadership Program are to:

• Strengthen women’s abilities to be leaders in their homes, businesses, and communities;

• Improve the communities in which refugee and immigrant women live;

• Increase advocacy by the refugee and immigrant women and their community members;

• Increase their capacity to access community resources; and

• Build allies across ethnicities for civic participation and community building.

  
  Past graduates of the Leadership Program have gone on to establish their own nonprofits that serve refugee women, including Tapestri, Fatima's Refuge, and Ujima Collective. 

Economic Empowerment 

Women’s Economic Empowerment services are provided to equip refugee and immigrant women with the knowledge and resources to become economically self-sufficient through employment, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Economic Empowerment services include:

Community Health Promotion

Community Health Promoter’s Program (See 2021-22 Impact report)

With concerns related to stress-related issues such as depression and reproductive health problems, RWN created a program to train Health Promoters from multilingual refugee communities to be health navigators, helping newcomers adjust to a new health care system, new food, and new physical and mental health challenges. The CHP program aims to be responsive to the unique needs of each community creating multiligual resources and meet ups. The CHP program pivoted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing urgent services and basic needs to refugee families followed by educational outreach. If you are interested in being a health promoter in your community, contact Temple Moore at Temple.Moore@riwn.org

Community Health Engagement Events

In response to the need to combat vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, RWN partners with the Clarkston Health Equiy Coalition membership to provide culturally and linguistically responsive engagement for the refugee, immigrant and migrant (RIM) community. What began as an initiative to do language-specific workshops with healthcare professionals from different language groups to create accessible trustworthy information and Q&A with community members transformed into large health fairs and community vaccination events in schools and local institutions. RWN Community Health Promoters help with translation, communication, partnership, and outreach for their specific communities. 

Considered a Promising Practice at the National Resource Center for Refugee, Immigrant and Migrants (NRC-RIM): https://nrcrim.org/community-fairs

https://nrcrim.org/multilingual-covid-19-vaccine-education-workshops

MothersxMothers

Our new MothersXMothers initiative offers community specific gatherings in a peer support model that honors the role of the mother as the health broker of the family and community. We have found that when women hear about the safety and importance of vaccination from other mothers that they relate to, (those that share their culture, language and experience), they are more likely to change their mind about health decisions. Our communities face three major challenges with regard to participation in these workshops: transportation, childcare, and financial means. RWN aims to provide these three things to each participant in order to support her engagement. MothersXMothers begins with the topic of vaccine confidence and then lets the women choose which health issue is central. Familiarity, trust and the creation of time and space for the conversation are essential.

Considered a Promising Practice at the National Resource Center for Refugee, Immigrant and Migrants (NRC-RIM): https://nrcrim.org/mothers-mothers-community-health-meetup-supports-vaccine-confidence

Wellness Groups

Women in our communities suffer from stress, depression and isolation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and often do not have a break from their roles as wife and mother to tend to their own needs. In response, RWN began a monthly Wellness Group in February 2021. The Wellness Groups include yoga, meditation, therapeutic tools for mental wellbeing and creative and social activities that occur in a women-only safe space.

Hiking Group

In collaboration with the Georgia Conservancy (GC), RWN launches a Women’s Hiking Group in March 2021 to facilitate health promotion, community integration, and environmental stewardship for a group of women survivors of war, conflict and displacement. The Hiking Program promotes equity and inclusion by reducing barriers to participation in healthy, outdoor activities. Through this community-based program, participants build confidence, develop a sense of belonging, and establish positive relationships with peers, outdoor educators and with the natural spaces of their new Georgia home. 

 Civic Engagement 

RWN supported active citizens and residents of Georgia to register in the Census and register to vote in 2020. This included education as to why civic engagement and social justice were relevant to them and their communities. RWN participates in the Georgia Immigrant Rights Association and partners with Asian Americans Advancing Justice, CivicGeorgia, and others to support legislation and policies that amplify the rights and voices of immigrants and refugees state-wide and nationally.