Creating a Regional Vision and Plan: The Richmond Region Immigrant and Refugee Vision
A Regional Challenge: Support for Immigrants and Refugees
Interested and committed groups and individuals with professional experience from around the Richmond region gathered in 2023 to better understand the barriers and assets of the system of support for immigrants and refugees in the region. Individuals with lived experience as immigrants and refugees also gathered to provide their own experiences and insights about the level of support across the region.
A Regional Vision is Adopted
Through months of engagement and listening to service providers and impacted persons, the core team arrived at the following regional vision. “The Richmond Region fully embraces, harnesses, and supports Immigrant and Refugee newcomers to our region.”
Plan context: Common barriers for marginalized communities are magnified for immigrants and refugees and further magnified for individuals lacking documentation and those without a designated refugee services funding stream. Political changes and the overall attitude and impression toward immigrants and refugees also impacted support delivery. The consensus is that our regional system has both capacity and a lack of capacity at the same time. Participants stress that the availability of services does not equal the quality of services or whether services are delivered with cultural competency.
The subsequent recommendations included in the report provide a roadmap for the region. This regional plan emerged from these conversations.
Plan Components
Review the full plan here or visit one of the affiliated links below to see the artifacts produced as part of the process.
System Map - interactive point-in-time service map
National Scan of Hub Models
System Map
Below, we invite you to see the first take of a static system map populated by service providers and newcomers on services as they see them. This interactive map is presented to quantify availability but does not speak to the quality of services. Over time, this map may be updated by providers, but for now, this is a point-in-time presentation of our region.
National Scan of Hub Models
As the team coalesced around these key goals and the need for a regional hub to be defined and created, TSM embarked on a scan of models from around the country. You can read the full scan here.
Special Thanks
Support for this project came from the Bob and Anna Lou Schaberg Foundation and the Barrington Family Foundation. A special thank you to the team of key organizations:
Commonwealth Catholic Charities
International Rescue Committee
ReEstablish Richmond
Sacred Heart Center
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants