Resettling one’s family in an unfamiliar country is not an easy feat. Having survived violence and persecution in their countries of origin, refugees face a plethora of new challenges when resettling in the United States—but their commitment to paving paths of success for their children is unwavering.
Spokane County experienced an influx of refugee families between 2021 and 2023. Spokane Public Schools (SPS) was suddenly faced with the challenge of addressing the complex and unique needs of the large number of refugee students in the district.
But there was hope in a new partnership with the International Rescue Committee (IRC)—an organization that helps people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives—which opened an office in Spokane in 2022.
Heather Richardson from the SPS English Language Development Team reached out to the IRC to build a partnership through a flagship in-home tutoring program that would address two key concerns of refugee families: transportation and trust.
By offering in-home tutoring, trained volunteers could deliver high-quality individualized support in a child’s home once per week for six months. Tutors foster accessible environments for students to strengthen their skills, build confidence, bridge learning gaps, and reinforce what they are learning in school.
“The students we work with are so bright, motivated, funny, creative, and just hungry to learn and grow and succeed,” said Marianne Sfeir, youth program coordinator at the IRC in Spokane. “They have big dreams.”
But tutoring only addressed one of many challenges refugee families faced. To support refugee communities more holistically, SPS and the IRC leveraged their collective resources—as well as federal Afghan Refugee School Impact and Ukrainian Refugee School Impact (ARSI/URSI) funding administered by School’s Out Washington—to develop and offer more programs.
“SOWA has been instrumental to our youth programs in Spokane,” said Marianne. “Funding is what set the foundation for [this expansion] to happen.”
What started as one flagship program serving 15 students has since grown into seven programs serving 150-200 students in a year, as well as 50+ parents and 400+ educators through school support, virtual reading programs, family engagement, mentorship, and professional development.
“All these services in addition to each other is what transforms lives,” Marianne said.
The community’s dedication to welcoming and engaging refugee youth led this partnership to blossom into an impressive, responsive network of holistic programs that aim to address the full web of complexities facing refugee families.