CRRA provides resettlement services to refugees and asylees who are escaping violence, persecution, and repression.
At CRRA we embrace refugees who arrive in Charlotte, recognizing their troubling experiences, trying to ease their transition into a new country, and respecting their need to remember where they came from.
CRRA’s infrastructure allows us to settle refugees of all nationalities and religions. Refugees are arriving from Myanmar, Congo, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Syria, and Central America – as well as others.
The agency, working through HIAS and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, receives a Reception & Placement federal grant distributed through the U.S. Department of State. This grant covers basic services for refugees during their initial 90 day period of resettlement.
During this initial 90 day resettlement period, CRRA obtains and furnishes apartments and stocks them with food so that once the caseworker meets the newly arriving refugee at the Charlotte airport, they have a home.
New arrivals receive help registering their children for school, enrolling in benefits, obtaining Social Security cards and are able to attend classes for English as a Second Language (ESL). Our employment counselors endeavor to find them work and guide each arrival toward self-sufficiency.
Additional grants provide extended medical case management, employment services, financial literacy, a savings program and cultural orientation classes. CRRA also connects refugees and asylees to other service agencies in the Charlotte area.