Sponsor A Refugee

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Sponsorship

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Interested in helping a refugee get settled into your community? Recruit your friends and neighbors to partner with a local resettlement agency to sponsor of a refugee.

Fill out this form (or Share your contact information) and we’ll help you get started.

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Community Sponsorship (or Co-sponsorship) is a unique form of engagement that pairs AIUSA members like you with refugees arriving to the United States to give them a warm and supportive welcome. In partnership with your local Resettlement Agency – Church World Service (CWS), International Rescue Committee (IRC), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) – you may assist with activities like greeting the refu-gee at the airport, securing their initial housing, setting that housing up with the furniture and household goods that they’ll need to start their lives in the US, taking them to initial appointments, helping them to im-prove their English and find employment, and showing them around their new community.

As a community sponsor, you will serve as a guide, advocate and friend to an arriving refugee; gain a better understanding of the refugee experience both overseas and in the United States; and become a more powerful advocate.

While community sponsorship looks different depending on the site and case co-sponsored, following are some thing that you should keep in mind:

Financial Commitment

$0 – $15,000

The financial resources required to co-sponsor a case vary based on a number of factors including: require-ments of the partner RA, size of the refugee family being assisted, cost of housing and the in-kind resources that you’re able to pull together.

Time Commitment

3 – 18 months

Like the financial commitment required, the time commitment also varies by site; however, a majority of of-fices request a six month commitment that declines over time. This means that the month prior to and fol-lowing the refugee’s arrival will likely be the most intensive.

The goal of community sponsorship is to support the refugee in becoming self-sufficient as quickly as possible. This means that all of the support provided should decline over time.