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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Co-creating Virtual Reality Videos to Support Newcomer Youth
This blog post describes a training and technical assistance (TTA) experience with the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) Sacramento office, in which the Emerging Technology team
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In a previous post, we shared the Society of Refugee Healthcare Provider’s directory of healthcare providers who serve refugees and immigrants. In this post, we share more details about how organizations can create their own directory tailored for their location and clients’ needs. What is this directory used for? A health care provider directory is […]
Safe, sanitary, and affordable housing is a prerequisite for well-being. But securing housing of this standard is difficult—particularly for newcomers to the United States. Many of Refugee Housing Solutions’ resources highlight ways to secure housing and avoid homelessness. If you are a newcomer, or are working with a newcomer, who is homeless or at risk […]
Over the last 40 years, the U.S. has admitted between 22,000 and 230,000 refugees annually. While refugees and immigrants arrive with rich cultural food traditions, many of which are health-promoting, they can erode over time, resulting in diet-related disease rates similar to those of U.S.-born populations. Structural inequalities, transit limitations, and a lack of affordable, […]
Many newly arriving refugees and humanitarian parolees are about to experience their first summer in the United States. Depending on where they have settled, they may find themselves in an unfamiliar weather environment with new summer activities available to them. These new environments may include exposure to extreme and prolonged heat, different UV indexes, and […]
In this blog, Salome Mwangi, the former coordinator of the Refugee Speakers Bureau at the Idaho Office for Refugees and a former refugee from Kenya, worked with Rob Callus from Switchboard to share her insights on storytelling about the refugee experience. Some of the stories shared here may be difficult to read, so please keep […]
As the challenges of finding safe, affordable housing for newcomers arriving in the United States have grown during the past few years, so too have the number and variety of housing innovations. Neighbors, friends, faith groups, towns, and cities have come together in inspiring and innovative ways to ideate, plan, fundraise, and create housing for […]