Coming to America as a refugee immigrant is an astonishingly traumatic event for the entire family, leaving community ties and careers behind while losing close friends, extended family, and supportive neighbors. Sadly, some refugee parents are unable to function and often turn to their children to navigate the new society so children must take on responsibilities well beyond their years. They rely heavily on them to navigate critical needs such as language, financial, housing, and other basic needs during their six months to five-year integration to citizenship. As young immigrants, many struggle with social isolation, depression and anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anti-immigrant sentiments all while mastering a new language and developing a sense of belonging. Thus, the YMCA International Services’ Refugee Youth Mentoring Program was designed to help refugee youth overcome these unique challenges. The program provides socio-emotional support, mentoring, workshops, and individual case management services.

Volunteer mentors play an integral role in helping youth adapt to their new environment, spending the majority of their time navigating the city, introducing them to new foods at restaurants or grocery stores, and connecting them to professionals over coffee, oftentimes paying out of pocket because funding for coffee and culturally appropriate snacks or meals is not provided to mentors. With your support, the program will be able to change that by officially sponsoring the “College and Career over Coffee” and “Celebrations and Cuisine around the World,” mentoring sessions.

During a “Celebrations and Cuisine around the World” session, youth and their mentors share and learn about the various cultural celebrations and traditional meals in the United States and their home country over a meal. Many meetings and networking opportunities are held over coffee, so mentors introduce this concept and help mentees get comfortable with these experiences, during a “College or Career over Coffee,” mentoring session. Additionally, mentors share their personal college or career journey and oftentimes introduce their mentee to other community members who may share some wisdom relevant to the mentee’s goals. Structured mentoring sessions such as these provide a new means of connection and understanding and strengthen the mentor/mentee relationship, making it easier for mentors to help youth to develop and achieve vocational, educational, and/or social goals.

We hope that, like our mentors, you will invest in our future!