Immigrant Resource Center coming soon

Immigrant Resource Center: The Basics

With our initial fundraising goals close to being met, our objective is to launch the first prong of our direct services, an immigrant resource center, in early 2026.  This will be a physical location, ideally located in north Bellingham, that will provide newer immigrants with resource navigation and assistance with basic needs such as food, access to medical care and connection to housing services. 

The resource center will initially receive referrals from a limited number of community partner organizations. Its programming is designed to help our participants overcome barriers related to language and cultural differences, as well as to navigate challenges such as long waitlists at other service providers or ineligibility due to a lack of permanent immigration status.

We will strive to provide culturally informed, responsive resource navigation services to at least 50 immigrant households in 2026.  Additionally, we will seek to assist 50 clients annually with immigration-related barriers by 2028. 

These services will help to bridge the gaps in services caused by overburdened services, lack of interpretation supports in the community and ineligibility for services like basic food assistance caused by immigration status concerns.

Target Population and Challenges Faced

Our focus is on immigrants who have been in the area for five years or less, and who do not yet have US citizenship or permanent residency.  Our experience has shown that these immigrants will often share two or more of the following risk factors, significantly impeding their efforts to progress toward stability.

• Lack of family or social supports in the community

• Immigration status is unstable / at-risk

• Ineligible for most traditional social safety net programs

• Critical vulnerabilities: Unstable housing, lack of work authorization, language barriers, etc.

An individual or family confronting this constellation of vulnerabilities will often, despite their best efforts and ingenuity, encounter multiple compounding barriers to stability. The graphic below shows some of the common challenges faced by immigrants seeking to access resources in the community.

Though the challenges are significant, we believe that an immigrant resource center where potential clients can come to receive basic services and resource navigation assistance will be a step toward addressing some of the most critical vulnerabilities that immigrants in our community face.