FIRM (Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries)

Ultimately, FIRM is aiming to assist individuals that are refugees, asylees, immigrants, Special Immigration Visa holders and others to have the tools they need to become self-sufficient. For many refugees, this process can take many years, but includes a strategy for equipping clients to be successful as they make their new lives here in the United States. This includes such issues as providing opportunities to learn the English language, assisting with the pursuit of education, assisting with job placement/job training and much more. The hope for the organization is that at some point, a particular client is no longer in need of FIRM's services and is able to navigate their lives with little assistance. While this is true, FIRM walks alongside clients anytime that they may need support of any kind. FIRM is also readily providing emergency support and support during times of crisis. These times can be particularly difficult for refugees and immigrants.

FIRM has a number of key strategies that the organization implements across programs to accomplish key goals:

1) Ensure that staff providing direct services to clients are culturally competent and linguistically capable. This strategy is pivotal for FIRM in building trust with the community.

2) Provide a welcoming community and space at FIRM where anyone can walk onto the campus anytime to seek out help during times of crisis or times when they need help with anything.

3) FIRM utilizes an outreach strategy to engage the community that begins with huge groups (Community Events on FIRM's campus can draw over 1,000 people or utilizing ethnic media), to large groups (Community workshops in varying languages typically have 25-75 participants), to small groups (peer support groups are typically 5-10 participants) and then to one-on-one case management that is uniquely designed for each client the organization serves. This strategy allows for people to experience FIRM at different levels so that we can build rapport with the client.

FIRM has 27 years of experience serving this unique population. The organization has extensive knowledge and expertise through a clear value of hiring employees from the communities served. FIRM's staff is linguistically capable and culturally competent. The staff team has the ability to serve clients in anywhere from 15-20 different spoken languages. Through years of providing quality services, the organization has become a trusted messenger and a welcoming place for all people. The organization regularly sees 100-150 unique walk-in clients on a weekly basis to the beautiful community campus in Fresno. FIRM also has the strong support of the faith-based community who mostly provide over 1,000 volunteers annually to advance the mission of the organization. There are also countless donors, churches and individuals that invest in this mission to ensure that refugees/immigrants are properly served.

FIRM has countless accomplishments during our 27 year history. These accomplishments include many awards, national recognition through working with refugees from throughout the world, expanding programs/services and much more! While these kinds of accomplishments are great, the real accomplishments are the tens of thousands of lives changed through the hearts/hands of FIRM staff and volunteers.