REFUGEE & EMIGRE SERVICES

JFS resettles and reunites families, provides critical case management and counseling services, and engages community members in the refugee experience through education, volunteerism, and advocacy. Through intensive, culturally sensitive case management, we help refugees and other immigrants integrate and make a home in their new communities, obtain and retain employment, and establish and maintain healthy lifestyles to achieve self-sufficiency.

The Refugee Integration Support Effort (RISE) is made possible not only by our professional staff, but with support from community volunteers, local congregations, state and local leaders, and national partners. RISE operates in partnership with HIAS—one of nine national resettlement agencies—and the state of Delaware to meet and support refugee families the moment they step into the country to ensure they have what they need to start their new chapter in the First State.

How We Support Refugees:

  • How you can help:

    This important work would not be possible without the generosity and volunteerism of community members and partners like YOU!

Why does JFS do this work?

Jewish Family Services of Delaware is guided by our Jewish history and values. We are all responsible for one another; we graciously accept our obligation to welcome and befriend the stranger. We treat all of humanity with kindness and dignity, regardless of their history or background. 

JFS has a long history of advocating for and assisting newcomers to America as they build new lives and raise their families in Delaware. In the 1980’s JFS was instrumental in resettling hundreds of families in Delaware from the former Soviet Union and, since 1997, have been providing émigré services for refugees who have already arrived in the state. In 2016, we relaunched our active resettlement efforts through the Refugee Integration Support Effort (RISE), at which time JFS Delaware became the only resettlement agency in the state.