International Institute Of Metropolitan St Louis

Community engagement - see schedule ocommunity engagement:community engagement focuses on creating a more welcoming region through; 1) connecting st. Louisans to the experience of new arrivals, 2) improving the cultural competency of customers and the wider community, 3) being a leader and a voice on issues, which impact refugees and immigrants, locally, nationally and internationally. To help build a more inclusive community, the institute produces the festival of nations, our region's largest multicultural festival that annually connects more than 100,000 visitors from across the region with the cultural traditions of newcomers and long-timers. The festival focuses on common cultural attractions, food, music, and dance and is a highly entertaining opportunity for st. Louisans to learn about and build greater appreciation for our community's growing diversity. The festival is also a valuable venue for other local non-profits to connect with these newcomers, who are difficult to reach through traditional media. As part of our community engagement activities, we offer tours to groups and volunteer opportunities that helps connect the wider community to our work. We organized 12 community monthly updates aimed at providing community stakeholders with an understanding of our work and offering them the opportunity to get involved. We introduced our mission and services to over 24 community groups, who participated in service days here on campus. Staff presented over 50 presentations to community organizations throughout our regions. We also maintained a strong social media presence, inspiring the community to support our work. All through the year, several media stories reported on the activities of the international institute especially related to food insecurity, and our initiatives aimed at welcoming more immigrants to our region. We also provided significant language services to support service delivery to our clients but also to a wide range of customers across the region, including schools, hospitals and court rooms.

Education & citizenship - see schedule oeducation & citizenship:we provide a variety of educational programs specifically designed to meet the needs of immigrant and refugee adult learners, including english to speakers of other languages (esol) classes and session-based citizenship preparation classes, each type with levels ranging from literacy to intermediate and held weekday mornings, afternoons and evenings. Most esol and citizenship classes have both in-person and remote options. Furthermore, we offer computer classes ranging from basic to intermediate levels, driving class with an installed driving simulator and a bridge to college course. Additionally, our teen programs provide tutoring and mentoring services to immigrant and refugee youth ages 14 to 24 throughout the year. The resulting numbers for 2024 evidenced an overall total of 1,440 unduplicated clients with 1,074 served in esol classes, 76 in computer classes, 174 in driving classes and 43 in bridge to college classes. 208 students prepared for us citizenship with 56 passing the citizenship interview. The teen programs served 118 youth.

Social work & health services: social work staff provide individual, group, and family-centered services with an emphasis on post-traumatic stress; grief, depression and other responses to migration-related trauma. Populations served include individuals experiencing challenges with such issues as aging, mental health, crime (i.e. Domestic violence), disabilities (i.e. Physical development), family conflict, and trafficking victims.iistl is a founding member of the care access for new americans (cana) mental health referral system for foreign-born individuals with the st. Louis mental health board (mhb). Anti-trafficking staff manage and support the eastern missouri/southern illinois rescue and restore consortium. The consortium is a collaborative of four networks, which conduct outreach and education to identify trafficking victims.

Mo-ora:missouri office of refugee administration is an office within the international institute of st. Louis and serves as the de facto state refugee office. The office administers federal funds from the office of refugee resettlement (orr) and distributes them statewide to local service providers in a variety of programs. In 2024, mo-ora funded programs to 7 refugee resettlement agencies, 9 non-resettlement agencies providing services to afghan parolees and approximately 30 school districts around the state. In addition to providing funding, mo-ora also monitors those agencies for compliance with federal regulations and provides training and technical assistance. Mo-ora has staff in st. Louis, kansas city and near jefferson city.