Halloween at FIRM will take place at Firm’s location at 1940 N. Fresno St. Fresno, CA 93703 on Friday October 29, 2021 from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Walk-throughs from 3:30 to 5pm and Drive-through from 5pm to 6:30pm.

Masks will be required and social distance between family groups will be enforced.

We are looking forward to a successful event and invite you to be a part of our event. We have limited vendor space available, if you are interested in exhibiting with us and need to know more about this event, please kindly email us.

You can also participate by volunteering or donating as we expect to have 200+ children for our Trunk or Treat event. 

While there is still much that is unknown about so many of the US’ former allies, now that the Taliban is controlling Afghanistan, here are 10 things we do know about Afghan refugees in Fresno.

1. Over a hundred-thousand Afghans were able to evacuate before the end of August.
2. Tens of thousands were admitted to the US and have been living on army bases as their paperwork gets processed.
3. Fresno is the designated new home for 50 new Afghan-Americans!
4. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) is the national resettlement agency that works closely with Bethany Christian Services in other cities and asked Bethany to offer these services in Fresno, too. So Bethany Christian Services will oversee placement of 50 Afghans in Fresno.
5. FIRM has never been a resettlement agency, and has always worked closely with all resettlement agencies to welcome refugees to our community. We continue to do so. We are working closely with Bethany, CAIR, ICCF and others to coordinate resources, services and welcome for these new Americans whenever they do arrive.
6. We are doing what we can now. In addition to collaboration, we also continue to try to support local families to get their family members out of danger in Afghanistan, but as we feared, it has become very difficult and dangerous to escape.
7. As time goes on, Fresno continues to be an attractive place to move from other locations in California with more expensive cost of living. As FIRM, we are committed to welcoming refugees no matter when they move here. We anticipate that our community will be welcoming Afghan refugees who were first resettled in other areas in the coming year or so. FIRM is able to support individuals and families apply for benefits, enroll in school, find a job, and more.
8. FIRM accepts and shares donations of clothing and working household items.
9. And lastly, we know that we will learn more as time goes on.

We don’t know yet if the 50 Afghan people will be relatives of Fresnans already living here, or how old each one is, or how many families these 50 individuals will come in. It could be 10 families of 5, it could be 5 families of 10, it could be 50 former interpreters. There may be many other families that decide to move here in the coming months and years. It is our mission to welcome them and build new communities of hope together.

Please join us in keeping the Afghan people in your prayers and hearts, even as the headlines move on.

August 20, 2021

As an organization that serves refugees from all around the world, we are heartbroken by the present news and cannot forget our past. FIRM works with people who came as refugees from Afghanistan, from Syria, from Iraq, from Laos, from Vietnam, from the Ukraine and other countries. We have the deep privilege to build communities of hope with New Americans, and see every day the gifts that refugees bring to this country and to our city. As we watch the news along with many of you, we are heartbroken and horrified. We remember the times when this has happened before, and the pain of what is to come next, unless we act.  

We remember how so many Southeast Asian families lost their loved ones while fleeing through hostile forces in order to reach a bordering country. After the US had withdrawn, the families of former soldiers had to flee their towns. Residents of the base/town of Long Cheng were left behind, surrounded on all sides by armed forces after the top few thousand were evacuated out by air. After the Secret War was left behind, with so many soldiers killed in war, some still boys themselves, so many babies and children were lost, because there was no safe way to flee once Laos had fallen to the Pathet Lao. 

We see too many resemblances between the footage at Kabul airport, the images from Saigon in ‘75 and the stories we have heard of the evacuation of Long Cheng. We know that it took strong advocacy, creative partnerships, the support of faith communities and courageous politicians to create the policies needed to begin to address the depth of the harm caused by US action and inaction, to transform our US refugee system to match that moment. We know that we have learned so much in the forty years since 1981 that can help us meet today. We know that every day counts for the people who have the most to lose under the new regime: human rights defenders, journalists, former US allies, women professionals, and people waiting for their paperwork to clear. We hope that the US can learn from the past and that our Afghan allies will not have to wait five or thirty years to be welcomed to the US as refugees, and that when they arrive, a full welcome will be waiting. 

Afghan-Fresnans are deeply worried about their family members stuck in Afghanistan. Whether their relatives were visiting family and have green cards here, or if they are still waiting for old applications to be processed, or if they are now at risk in a way that they weren’t before this week. We continue to listen and invite you to join us in the following actions. 

1. We call for the immediate processing of all SIV, P1, P2 and parole requests previously submitted from Afghanistan. 
2. We call for the expedited processing of all applications by Afghans now at risk due to their previous work experience or having relatives in the US 
3. We call on our Congressmen and our President to ensure that there are safe exits for every person at risk of persecution in Afghanistan. 
4. We call for the designation of Afghans for Temporary Protected Status to prevent deportations and other returns to Afghanistan from the United States. 
5. We call for a drastic increase in the number of refugees resettled in this year.

We invite our friends, neighbors and faith communities to join us in advocating for these five things, to stay tuned for more updates, and to be a part of welcoming refugees to the US. We know that it will take all of us working together to do what this moment requires of us. 

Save the date: Friday, June 25th, 2021 from 6 to 8pm

Multilingual artists performing from across the US and updates celebrating refugee community resilience in Fresno. Sponsors welcome!

Please contact [email protected] or [email protected] for more details!

FIRM is hiring for at least four positions at this time: Community Health Workers, a Data/Reporting Specialist, an Arabic-speaking Project Assistant and a Hmong-speaking Home Visitor.

Thanks to the continued investment of our local governments, the COVID-19 Equity Project is continuing in 2021!

FIRM is pleased to share two job descriptions for our COVID-19 Equity Project. We will be hiring multiple individuals, so please share widely. We are looking for hardworking multilingual employees who love talking to people and deeply listening. The positions will work together as a team to ensure that refugee communities are included and informed as we work together with other partner agencies to stop the spread of COVID-19 in Fresno County and the San Joaquin Valley.

The Community Health Worker positions have a number of responsibilities including conducting outreach remotely and in person, staffing COVID-19 testing sites and calling individuals who test positive to make sure they have the resources that they need to stay safe and stay home while they recover. All Community Health Workers must be fluent in speaking and be able to explain health concepts in a language spoken by refugee communities in Fresno (Hmong, Lao, Khmer, Thai, Vietnamese, Amharic, Arabic, Farsi, Dari or others)

Lots of community health and workplace safety training will be provided upon hire.

All employees must be able to conduct activities in person AND from home.

These temporary positions are grant-funded. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.

For more details, including salary ranges, please see Job Descriptions below:

To apply for either COVID-19 Response position, please email Paula Cha your resume and a short (under 1 minute) video of yourself introducing yourself in a language spoken by refugee communities in Fresno County.

Our growing Literacy and Learning program is seeking TWO individuals to strengthen our literacy work in Arabic- and Hmong-speaking families. At FIRM we celebrate fluency and literacy in all of our languages, and want our children to carry pride in all the languages that their families speak. All Literacy programs are conducted remotely due to the pandemic. The Home Visitor may mail or drop off activities for participating families, but no in-person visits are being conducted at this time.

To apply for the Literacy programs, please email: [email protected] with your resume.

Rolling Interviews will begin soon! Please share widely!

FIRM’s 2020 Christmas event was transformed to a drive-up appointment-only socially distanced celebration. Our staff worked in shifts and maintained their distance from one another. Santa danced from a distance as parents stayed in their cars and awaited gifts as Christmas carols played on the speakers.

Thanks to the incredible generosity of United Japanese Christian Church and University Presbyterian Church of Fresno, we were able to supplement the Toys for Tots delivery to ensure that all 1000 kids who registered and were on the waitlist were able to receive toys for Christmas. Many thanks to a few brave and socially distanced volunteers who spent a cool Saturday wrapping gifts outdoors (with a huge thank you to the incredible Diane P. Phakonekham for connecting us and spending her Saturday wrapping gifts for FIRM kids).

December 12, 2020

Dear Friends of FIRM,

I hope you and your loved ones are well and safe as you read this letter. Thank you for your support of FIRM this year. The winter sun is shining bright this morning on the FIRM campus as we load in four pallets of rice and, in partnership with UCSF Fresno, provide 200 free rapid COVID tests through the COVID-19 Equity Project (CEP). We are blessed to be able to grow in new ways, even as the pandemic has shifted everything we do.

As new Executive Director of FIRM, I am honored to serve the refugee communities of Fresno alongside the talented FIRM staff. I returned home to FIRM after a six year absence, starting days before the first Stay at Home Order in March. I was first introduced to FIRM as a college intern for three summers and later worked as a project coordinator for another three years. I left Fresno for a Master’s in Public Administration program at Cornell where I could contextualize what FIRM had taught me about migration, building community and belonging. I am so glad to be back, learning and sharing in community!

Despite the challenges presented by not being able to safely gather in-person, our programs are growing. The staff continues to rise to the challenge of serving the community. Their commitment is what makes FIRM successful. We delivered thousands of bags of rice and vegetables, grown by local Southeast Asian farmers, to the doorsteps of refugee families and elders. Our social media, TV, and radio reach has quadrupled as more people turn to us for accurate and timely information in their home language. Our staff has doubled through the COVID-19 Equity Project (CEP), a CARES Act initiative that FIRM developed in partnership with Fresno Building Healthy Communities, Central Valley Health Policy Institute and a coalition of Community-Based Organizations. In addition to being the host of the CEP static testing site in the Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley-Rea Center, FIRM is offering COVID-19 support and contact tracing in 9 languages: Arabic, Efik, Hmong, Lao, Khmer, Russian, Ukranian, Vietnamese and English. 

This year, 1000+ children and youth are signed up to receive Toys for Tots through FIRM. Even more families have asked to be put on a waiting list for any extra gifts. FIRM is planning a socially-distanced drive-through appointment-only distribution to make sure that every child who is registered gets a present for Christmas. 

Please keep us in your prayers. Pray for refugee families separated, that they would be together again. Pray for the six families at Summerset who have been displaced by fire this winter. Pray for the families of the many loved ones we have already lost to COVID. 

As we look to the New Year, much remains uncertain. I know these three things to be true: FIRM would not be FIRM without your thoughtful contributions; Fresno families who came as refugees are still building communities of hope with us in inspiring ways; our future burns brighter when we are in community.  If you are in a position to give this holiday season, FIRM will be stronger with your donation. 

Thank you for all your contributions, love and prayers as we move forward into 2021 and beyond.

In Hope,

Christine

Mr. Sisavanh Onedara is 66 years old and has been living in the US for 30+ years. He came as a Lao refugee and became a permanent resident. This is his first time voting and he was so excited to share the moment he mailed his ballot with FIRM and all of you.  Mr. Onedara received his citizenship last year through FIRM, after attending ESL Citizenship classes with Ms. Vicki, studying hard, applying, passing the test, completing the interview and being accepted.

We celebrate Mr. Onedara and every other first time voter in this important election.