Switchboard Blog

Switchboard’s blog posts offer a wide range of insights on the newcomer experience, including practical tips for navigating the resettlement process, resource lists tailored to community needs, case studies about relevant programs, engaging stories of successful integration, and more.

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How to Develop and Run a Community Advisory Board (CAB) Meeting

A community advisory board (CAB) is a group of individuals from a specific community who come together to provide guidance, feedback, and support to organizations, projects, or initiatives impacting their community. CABs are often useful in health care, education, research, and community development projects to ensure that the voices of community members are heard and…

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The Question of Compassion People working in refugee resettlement are often motivated by compassion. This is perhaps especially true for those who engage directly with clients—caseworkers, casework assistants, volunteers, interpreters, and the range of housing, education, and employment specialists. Compassion is defined by Trzeciak & Mazzarelli as an “emotional response to another’s pain or suffering,…

Do you support refugees and newcomers with affordable housing services? This blog post is for you! Switchboard has partnered with Refugee Housing Solutions to share training and promising practices related to housing solutions for newcomers. Today, we’re spotlighting the innovative housing work of World Learning Inc., a global nonprofit and accredited academic institution with a…

 Switchboard is committed to sharing stories of lived experiences with service providers across the U.S. Today, Switchboard is sharing the anonymous story of an Afghan American Social Worker who arrived in the United States as an Unaccompanied Refugee Minor.  Experiences in the U.S. Foster Care System At the early age of 14, I was forced…

In early 2022, President Biden announced that the United States would welcome 100,000 Ukrainian newcomers and others affected by the Russian invasion that took place in February. The resettlement network is working to support Ukrainians by providing available benefits and services, including those funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). This blog post, created…