Programs and Services

CARI works to promote the well-being of African refugees and immigrants. We design and manage national initiatives in public education, organizational capacity building, cultural understanding and competency, health promotion, and community development.

Public Education
CBO Network Development
Training and Technical Assistance
Project for Strengthening Organizations Assisting Refugees
Refugee Family Enrichment Project
HIV/AIDS Prevention Education among African Refugees and Immigrants
Past Initiatives

Public Education

CARI’s public education efforts seek to promote understanding of African refugee and immigrant issues among the public. CARI conducts education through diverse media, including conferences, newsletters, factsheets and community forums.

Events | Publications | Previous ECDC Conferences

CBO Network Development

ECDC established the African Resource Network (ARN), which is administered through CARI, to nurture the development of African community-based organizations. Through training and technical assistance, CARI works with African CBOs to improve their capacity. CARI’s efforts will make a sustained impact on the lives of African newcomers and the policies that affect them.

Stronger organizations will create stronger communities. ARN’s work with organizations will strengthen refugee communities, creating greater public awareness and community-wide cohesion. Our goal is to improve refugees’ access to programs and services, strengthen utilization of US institutions, and enhance the ability of refugees to speak on their own behalf.

ARN measures success through practice and evidence. When organizations remain operational for longer than two fiscal years, this is success. When African-born leaders are voted onto local school-boards and city councils, this is success. The Network takes responsibility for the progress in African-born communities nationwide. We’re committed to positive change.

As the only network for African community-based organizations, strengthening the ARN’s collective impact will be reflected in more evidence-based policies and practices that promote the well-being of African refugees and immigrants.

The effort includes an annual leadership development workshop that brings together approximately 40 African CBO leaders each year for training on such topics as organizational and resource development, program management, non-profit governance, and other capacity-building themes. ECDC CARI has engaged in strategic planning, governing principles development, and establishment of organizational standards as part of its network development, strengthening, and management.

About the ARN

Training and Technical Assistance

CARI provides training and technical assistance to emerging and established African community-based organizations (CBOs) through group-format and organization-specific consultancy platforms. CARI implements technical assistance as a partnership between African organizations and CARI, rather than more typical top-down, instructor-student models. Training and technical assistance includes customized on-site and remote consultancy, participatory skill-building workshops, and capacity building resource materials development and dissemination. Subjects include: leadership development, effective communication, team building, coalition building, proposal writing, program evaluation, community participation and mobilization, among many others.

CARI emphasizes culturally and linguistically appropriate program modifications for African newcomers. For example, HIV/AIDS prevention education programs have been adapted (project design, curriculum development, program processes, resource development, etc.) to improve participation and efficacy with African newcomer populations. Our African immigrant professionals bring their expertise to bear on these projects.

Click on information sheet for more information on
CARI’s technical assistance services.

Community Initiatives

Although CARI maintains a national scope, we’re imbedded in local immigrant communities through our work. CARI initiatives strengthen individuals, families, and communities by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services, programs and interventions. CARI partners with local African CBOs to identify community needs, and CARI strengthens organizational and programmatic capacities. These initiatives pair the technical and grants management expertise o f CARI with the community relations capabilities of local organizations. We share experiences and lessons-le arned, and sponsor information exchange to ensure the long-term sustainability.

Current, community initiatives include the following:

Refugee Family Enrichment Project

This project promotes and encourages healthy marriages and strengthens refugee families. Culturally and linguistically appropriate communication and conflict resolution workshops are offered to unmarried, married, married with children, and young adult refugees. The project’s objectives include: improving resettled refugees’ relationships and enriching their families; establishing coalitions of agencies/organizations committed to helping refugee families strengthen their families and relationships; and conducting community outreach, resource development, and capacity building within the refugee community to advance the concept of family enrichment.

Brochures

Current Projects

Project for Strengthening Organizations Assisting Refugees (Project SOAR)

In partnership with the International Rescue Committee and Southeast Asian Resource Action Center, this project provides technical assistance to small and emerging ethnic community-based organizations. The project aims to strengthen the organizational capacity of mutual assistance associations and thus ensure that they develop into effective and sustainable organizations. Technical assistance is provided through on-site training, remote consultancy, conference call trainings, dissemination of topical fact sheets, and an annual workshop.

Click on picture above to view presentation

HIV/AIDS Prevention Education among African Refugees and Immigrants

The purpose of this project is to reduce the incidence of HIV infection among high-risk African refugee and immigrant youth and adults residing in Houston, TX and Las Vegas, NV. The major components of the project include: street outreach; individual and group HIV education; risk assessment; referral to HIV testing and counseling centers; and the dissemination education materials, condoms, and HIV risk-reduction kits.

Brochures

Past Community Initiatives

National African Diabetes Prevention and Education

This project sought to reduce the disproportionately high rate of diabetes among African newcomers. The project reached the target population with culturally and linguistically appropriate intervention strategies, including peer education and dissemination of educational materials, in Washington, DC, San Diego, Houston, Chicago, Denver, and Boston.

Brochures

Somali Bantu Community Development

This project enhanced the integration process of the Somali Bantu refugee population by sharing information about Somali Bantu culture with the service providers and strengthening the organizational capacity of the Somali Bantu Community Organization (SOBCO) in Atlanta, Georgia. CARI staff conducted trainings for service providers and Somali Bantu community leaders, developed refugee population fact sheets, and provided technical assistance to SOBCO.

Click on factsheet to view large image.

Southern Sudanese Youth Reunion

This project brought together a total of 400 “Lost Boys and Girls” from communities across the United States for a traditional American summer camp experience for this recently arrived refugee population. The reunions, conducted in 2002 and 2003, included workshops on civic participation, personal finance, educational opportunities, volunteerism, and health and nutrition.

African Community Strengthening

This project provided locally designed interventions that met the unique needs of refugee populations at each project site. Activities included organizational development and project-related technical assistance to sub-grantee African CBOs. Local initiatives focused on youth leadership development, women’s capacity building, youth mentoring, continuing education, and English a Second Language implemented by ECDC’s African Community Center in Washington, DC; African Refugee and Immigrant Services in St. Louis, Missouri; and the Ethiopian Community Association of Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.

HIV and African Newcomers: Building Bridges for a Healthier Future Conference Track

In 2002, ECDC added a new track to its annual conference on African refugees with the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This track, titled HIV and African Newcomers: Building Bridges for a Healthier Future, sought to improve the capacity of caseworkers and health care providers to treat and prevent HIV/AIDS among African newcomers. The sessions included: Building HIV/AIDS Prevention Collaborations; Providing Services to HIV-Positive African Newcomers; The Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Africa; and Resettling HIV-Positive African Refugees.