Faith communities often play a crucial role in responding to disasters throughout the United States, such as by building houses, providing emotional care to survivors and meeting other unmet needs. How and why faith communities respond to disasters will be explored at the 2012 Church World Service Forum on Domestic Disaster Ministry, March 19-21 in New Windsor, Maryland. The biennial …
With more intensive orientation, CWS gives new refugee arrivals a stronger foundation
January 19, 2012
At the same time as it launched its Citizenship Education and Naturalization Services Program, the Church World Service office in Greensboro, N.C., also launched Cultural Orientation for Refugee Empowerment (CORE). CWS-Greensboro recognized that new refugee arrivals were in need of a more comprehensive approach to community and cultural orientation. While case managers spent hours working one-on-one with families providing information …
Pre-resettlement CWS ESL Pilot Project boosts U.S.-bound refugees’ skills, confidence
Imagine you’re a refugee who has never been to school and maybe never even held a pen or pencil. You don’t speak a word of English. And you’ve just been approved to resettle in the United States. You might well be feeling anxious, wondering what you are in for. That pretty well describes the class of 91 Somali and Darfuri …
Meet three new U.S. citizens! Thuong, Mahawa and Blinh
Thuong Vu, an immigrant from Vietnam, has been in the United States for six years. He took the citizenship test twice on his own and failed; after taking the CWS class, he tried a third time and succeeded. The key, he said, was learning the questions and vocabulary on the N-400 form, the application submitted in order to naturalize. Even …
CWS “Neighbors in Need” program looks at urban refugees and their host communities
Where do most refugees live? While about one-third of the world’s estimated 10.6 million refugees are in sprawling camps in remote rural areas, roughly another third live in cities. And their number is growing. But most existing practices and guidelines for refugee protection and assistance have been developed for rural, camp-based settings rather than for urban areas. Accordingly, both governments …
CWS helps refugees with English, civics and other building blocks for citizenship
Test your knowledge of U.S. history and government! Click here to take the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Naturalization Self Test! Then read about how Church World Service is helping refugees and other eligible immigrants prepare for the test. Church World Service, with 36 refugee resettlement offices and affiliates in 21 states, perceived a need for more comprehensive classes to …
Faithful resistance to Alabama’s anti-immigrant HB 56
Rev. Noel Andersen |
God “enacts justice for orphans and widows, and he loves immigrants, giving them food and clothing. That means you must also love immigrants because you were immigrants in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:18-19, Common English Bible Alabama’s House Bill 56 is the harshest anti-immigrant legislation yet to pass in the United States. Alabama is now the epicenter of the immigration debate. That’s …
Keystone pipeline denial the right decision, says Church World Service
January 18, 2012
Washington, D.C./New York – Church World Service this afternoon applauded President Barack Obama’s decision today denying a permit to move ahead with the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline, the hotly debated 1,700 mile-long project that would have run from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Just over a month ago, CWS reminded President Obama that, “America does not …
Feed the Future, CWS and YOU (webinar)
January 13, 2012
Please join Rev. John L. McCullough of Church World Service (CWS) and USAID’s Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives for a special briefing on President Obama’s Feed the Future initiative and the work of CWS addressing food security issues around the world. It’s a chance to learn about what’s working in the struggle to overcome hunger. Please join us for …
CWS supports proposed family waiver reforms, urges relief for more families
January 11, 2012
Washington, D.C. — On January 6, 2012, the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced its intent to stop requiring certain undocumented family members of U.S. citizens to leave the United States before they can apply for a waiver to allow them to remain with their family members. Church World Service, a global humanitarian agency, applauds …