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Refugee & Immigrant Services

The Jewish community understands what it is like to leave one’s home and resettle in a foreign land. That historic experience fuels our desire to help refugees and immigrants make a successful transition to self-sufficiency. Our culturally diverse staff is recruited directly from the communities we serve.

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Support Needed

Your support is urgently needed for families arriving from countries throughout the world.

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A Refugee Story

Mitra tells her family’s story of navigating their way to America.

Beyond Resettlement

JFS works with HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, to resettle refugees assigned by the U.S. Department of State. We provide a required set of services from pre-arrival through the first 90 days of the resettlement period. But, our work with our new neighbors extends far beyond that initial three-month period, from Day 91 through citizenship. JFS provides holistic case management and education services to helps refugees, immigrants and asylees to become economically, socially and civically integrated in our community.

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Welcome Circles

A Welcome Circle (also called community sponsorship) is a group of individuals who provide financial, resettlement, and emotional support to newcomers for six months until they reach self-sufficiency. Circles can form as part of a synagogue, organization, community center, or other faith or interfaith community, or they can be made up of private individuals.

Most circles have 5-8 core members who lead on different tasks, such as finding housing, signing up for benefits, helping enroll children in school, and assisting adults with job readiness and employment.

If you are interested in forming a Welcome Circle, please visit HIAS for more details.

If you are already a part of a Welcome Circle, while JFS is unable to provide overarching support to individuals and community groups who have formed Welcome Circles, we are available to provide employment services for eligible individuals referred to JFS through DSHS’ Limited English Proficiency Pathway Program. We also encourage you to explore the many local resources available to support refugees in our region.

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More Ways to Get Help

Resettlement
Refugees from all over the world are supported and encouraged as they integrate successfully into their new environments. Learn more with our Refugee Resettlement FAQ.
Intensive Case Management
We provide comprehensive, long-term case management to refugee and asylees who face additional barriers to stability including single-parent households, members of the LGTBQI community, and those with complex medical and mental health needs.
Employment Services
We assist with job readiness skills, employment counseling, and job placement and retention support. Comprehensive case management is provided to remove barriers to employment and includes services such as low-income housing applications, assistance with medical appointments and referral services.
Immigration Legal Services
We provide assistance with legal services, including adjustment of status (such as green cards), naturalization, and family reunification applications.
Humanitarian Relief Legal Services
We provide legal assistance and representation to immigrants who are seeking humanitarian legal relief, including asylum seekers, survivors of sex and/or labor trafficking and unaccompanied youth who may be eligible for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status. Limited support is also available to other immigrants of humanitarian concern, including survivors of torture or certain types of serious crimes.
Unaccompanied Youth Services
We provide evidence-based, culturally and linguistically appropriate case management services to children who entered into the United States without the protection of an adult. The goal of this program is to help youth reunite with a guardian in Washington state and successfully integrate into their new community. Case managers also conduct outreach and education to community service providers to supplement existing services that do not adequately address the unique needs of newly arrived immigrant children.
Youth Survivors of Trafficking Services
We offer trauma-informed, comprehensive case management services for foreign-born survivors of sex and labor trafficking, ages 24 and younger. The goal of this program is to help survivors of human trafficking achieve long-term stability and self-sufficiency as well as immigration relief. Services include help with basic needs, medical case management, legal assistance, transportation, school and higher education support, and assistance obtaining correct personal and immigration documents.
Funders
JFS serves individuals and families from King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties. Most programs are offered at no charge to participants and are made possible by generous funding from:
- HIAS
- Church World Service (CWS)
- U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI)
- Solid Ground Washington
- WA State Office of Refugee & Immigrant Assistance (ORIA)
- WA State Department of Commerce
- City of Kent
- King County
- U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Population, Refugees & Migration (PRM)
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services – Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services – Office on Trafficking in Persons (OTIP)