San Diego is home to one of the International Rescue Committee’s 22 United States resettlement offices, which together have helped 20,000 newly arrived refugees resettle upon arrival and then navigate their new environment and incorporate into the culture. The goal is to help refugees survive and thrive in the U.S.

Since 2000, IRC San Diego’s Microenterprise Program has helped to start or expand more than 150 refugee-owned small businesses through one-on-one business consulting, technical assistance and business loans up to $15,000. Currently, the program is assisting many Iraqi refugee entrepreneurs living in El Cajon, a community that has seen more than 8,000 new refugee arrivals over the past three years – for obvious reasons.

IRC’s Microenterprise Program is housed within its Center for Financial Opportunity, a one-stop shop helping refugees with all their small business, financial and employment-related needs.

Newly arrived refugees also get help with housing, health care, nutritious food, English language classes, education for their children, social services, community support, job and computer skills, and legal services toward residency and citizenship.

In order to help refugees thrive, the staff and volunteers seek creative ways to empower those they serve as they embark along the long road of cultural acclimation.

New Roots Community Farm in University Heights is just one example of a creative solution to empower those they serve. The brainchild of the refugees themselves, the farm provides access to healthy, organic food for the families AND the ability to produce a surplus, which can be sold for income.

The melting pot of more than 80 refugee farmers tend their gardens and their souls as they grow food and grow relationships with other refugee farmers from at least nine different countries. At the farm, they are able to share not only food from their home countries, but similar experiences and feelings, which helps with the isolation that refugees often feel.