The Afghan Refugee School Impact (ARSI) & Afghan Youth Mentoring (AYM) Program is a statewide program funded by supplemental funds from the Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act allocated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to provide support services to newly arrived youth and families from Afghanistan. We support the implementation of the programs across four regions within California – Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Diego. The program’s goal is to engage and connect Afghan youth and families with available resources, providing them the support they need to succeed academically and socially while integrating into their communities.
A Community-Led Transformation Model was created to support this unique and comprehensive statewide program to serve Afghan refugees through Ethnic Community-Based Organizations (ECBOs). Our community-centered strategic program design provides opportunities for capacity building at three levels: individual, organizational, and regional. We are co-creating a best practice model for coalition building, skill-based learning, and client and healing-centered trauma-informed program design. The design leverages a tri-level community of practice with statewide operational training, regional coalition collaboration, and subject-area workshops co-led by coalition experts.
We are currently at the mid-point of the ARSI-AYM Program. Since March of 2023, our 47 partner organizations across the state have implemented over 80 programs and served over 1,500 families. We are honored to continue supporting this important work; please keep an eye out for more program successes to come!
To learn more about the ARSI-AYM Program, please visit here.