JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE USA

Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is a 501(c)(3) organization based in Washington, DC that provides support through funding, oversight, monitoring, and evaluation to Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) projects and programming throughout the world.

Jesuit Refugee Service is an international Catholic organization serving refugees and other forcibly displaced people in more than 58 countries worldwide. We accompany, serve, and advocate the cause of refugees and other forcibly displaced people so they may heal, learn, and build their own future.

Driven by the values and commitment of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), our vision is a world where refugees and forcibly displaced people attain protection, opportunity, and participation.

JRS/USA believes that everyone can make a difference in the lives of refugees and displaced people and that each child, mother, father, grandparent, elder, and infant deserves the chance to be safe and the opportunity to hope.

JRS/USA funding, monitoring and oversight, and communication strategies support JRS International programs that focus on four key priorities:

Peace through Reconciliation
Forcibly displaced people, especially children, experience severe trauma when they flee their homes, making it difficult for them to thrive as individuals and in a community. At the heart of JRS's work is a commitment to promote reconciliation, helping people be at peace with themselves and with others. This includes incorporating mental health support across our programming. It also includes promoting understanding, empathy and common purpose, creating or recreating right relationships among the refugees we serve, between refugees and host communities, and among our teams around the world.

Hope through Education
JRS is committed to the delivery of quality education to forcibly displaced children and adults. Education is a core activity of JRS. We offer displaced families and children formal and informal instruction, including pre-school, primary, secondary, professional and, post-secondary education. Schools are where the past is healed, hope is nourished, and a brighter future is inspired.

Dignity through Livelihoods
Through innovative programs focused on self-reliance and sustainability, JRSs Livelihood programs provide job training and tools, loans, and small business support to restore dignity, promote local integration, and provide pathways to independence for refugees and their families.

Justice through Advocacy
JRS defends the rights of forcibly displaced people around the world. Our advocacy efforts are grounded in the experience of the refugees we serve, drawing on experience and expert analysis to provide policy recommendations to protect those most at risk.

An investment in this vision is an investment in a brighter future for nearly three quarters of a million individuals served each year by JRS.

JRS/USA responds to today’s refugee crisis through a unique and personalized approach to our work, recognizing the dignity in every person we serve. We believe that this individual interaction and cooperation with refugees is the most important way to express concern for their wellbeing and understand their aspirations.

JRS/USA serves forcibly displaced migrants in the US through our Detention Chaplaincy Program and the binational Mental Health Psychosocial Support and Legal Assistance program, Caminar Contigo. Jesuit Refugee Service/USA chaplaincy programs provide counseling and religious assistance to meet the needs of non-citizens detained by the Department of Homeland Security in five US federal detention centers.

The goal of the Caminar Contigo program is to reduce suffering, improve mental health and psychosocial wellbeing, and to decrease the violations to the legal rights for refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced people in the Ciudad Juarez and El Paso region through the provision of information, support, and other legal and MHPSS services.

JRS/USA advocates to defend and protect refugees at home and abroad by representing them to Congress and US Government officials. JRS/USA also organizes supporters to raise awareness and advocate on refugees’ behalf.

JRS/USA specific strategies include 1) to lead in the implementation of multi-faith collaborative responses to care for the spiritual needs of immigration detainees held in U.S. government custody; 2) to work in partnership with Catholic parishes and Jesuit Provinces to provide protection mechanisms for vulnerable migrants, refugees, asylees, and victims of trafficking (e.g. shelter, humanitarian aid, and legal support); 3) to raise awareness about the work of JRS and issues surrounding forced displacement in a manner that compels individuals, institutions, agencies, and communities to become active partners in our work; 4) to strengthen JRS global organizational communications.

JRS/USA has 43 years experience and a team of talented, professional, passionate individuals committed to assisting refugees and other forcibly displaced people heal, learn, and determine their own future. JRS/USA staff include: international development program staff, detention chaplaincy staff, advocacy and outreach staff, communications professionals, fundraising professionals, finance professionals, and mission directors.

The JRS/USA National Chaplaincy Program provides pastoral and religious assistance to meet the needs of non-citizens detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in five US federal detention centers located in Florida, Texas, Arizona and New York. The National Detention Chaplaincy Program enables people of all faiths and no faith to have access to pastoral and spiritual care within either their faith tradition or no faith tradition.

In 2023, the JRS staff in the five adult detention centers coordinated spiritual support sessions and other religious services to approximately 24,000 detainees. The services include administering religious diets, grief and personal counseling, emergency notification, marriage requests, provision of religious items, and other established and non-established religious practices.

JRS/USA Border Program Update
JRS – registered both in the US and Mexico, with strong affiliations to several dozen service providers in the area – is particularly well positioned to meet the needs of refugees at the Texas/Mexico border. JRS has implemented a binational legal and MHPSS services program in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas, two cities with some of the most frequent border crossings. We currently have 6 full time staff members implementing our programs at the border.

JRS/USA's Total Program Support

JRS/USA funds raised to support JRS programming are distributed to nine JRS regions throughout the globe. In 2023, contributions from JRS/USA helped JRS serve more than 1,224,000 people in 58 countries. In 2023, JRS/USA program support totaled $30,906,329.