U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Ethnic Community Self Help Program

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) invites eligible entities to submit grant applications for the Ethnic Community Self-Help (ECSH) Program to connect newly arrived refugee communities and their organizations to mainstream communities, and to provide services to newly arriving refugees.

ORR has identified the following three program objectives that must be carried out under the ECSH Program:

1. Strengthen Provision of Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services: To strengthen ECBOs’ provision of culturally and linguistically appropriate services to refugees within 5 years after their initial resettlement.
2. Support Organizational Development: To support ECBOs’ organizational development and engagement in capacity building by encouraging their collaboration with established refugee service providers and mainstream organizations.
3. Promote Community Building and Civic Participation: To support ECBOs in promoting community building and civic participation by refugee individuals and refugee community members.

Amount: $1,800,000 is available for 12 grants ranging from $100,000-$200,000 each.

Eligibility: ECBOs, defined as a non-profit organization that was founded and is led by a current or former refugee, or a group of current and former refugees and immigrants, primarily for the advancement of refugees. ORR considers an ECBO as a non-profit organization whose board of directors is comprised of at least 60 percent current and/or former refugees.

Link: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/grants/open/foa/view/HHS-2016-ACF-ORR-RE-1129

Note: ORR will award bonus points to projects that propose to implement activities in states identified by the Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration’s Refugee Processing Center as having a high resettlement rate for refugees in FY 2015 and that do not have an ECSH grant as of September 30, 2016. The following states are eligible: Arizona, Washington, Florida, North Carolina, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Tennessee, and Maryland. New Mexico is not eligible for bonus points.

This post was filed under: