American Institutes for Research Awarded Grant to Improve Refugee Resettlement and Integration in Virginia
Arlington, Va. – The American Institutes for Research (AIR) has been awarded $100,000 for a 12-month developmental study that will create and assess a novel systems alignment approach to improve the health and well-being of refugees as they resettle and integrate in Virginia. The grant comes from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action (S4A) research program, housed at the Colorado School of Public Health.
Supporting displaced people can be challenging even with advanced planning. The systems that support refugee resettlement include an array of local, state, and federal partners that provide resettlement and integration services across various programs and different points in the resettlement process.
As part of this new S4A pilot study, AIR health researchers will work with partners at the Office of New Americans, Church World Service, and the Department of Health in Virginia to create and assess a novel systems alignment approach based on an existing federal coordinating mechanism known as quarterly consultations. Quarterly consultations bring together numerous organizations representing various systems including education, health, social services, and workforce development. These meetings inform community resettlement partners about expected refugee arrivals, examine local capacity to receive them, and solicit input from system representatives.
“Numerous systems are involved in providing resettlement programs and services, and effective alignment between them can contribute to the well-being and integration of newcomers,” said Maliha Ali, a senior researcher at AIR who is leading the project. “Quarterly consultations are an exciting opportunity to align resettlement efforts across medical, public health, and social systems. Moreover, there is a real opportunity to engage refugee voices to identify priority issues and structural barriers to services.”
Guided by formative research and an advisory panel, the project will develop an alignment approach that fully engages refugees and refugee-led community organizations with system representatives in quarterly consultation meetings to help identify and solve challenges posed by structural barriers.
“Findings from this work will inform strategies to improve community consultations and support effective resettlement and integration,” said Charlene Nguyen, who serves as the deputy lead on this project.
This developmental grant builds on the recommendations of prior work under the Health Equity for Afghan Refugees (HEAR) Project. Supported by the AIR Opportunity Fund, HEAR generated and applied evidence to help diverse organizations align their efforts with the priorities of Afghan refugees. The research team will provide an overview of their planned work at a webinar on December 18, 2024.
About AIR
Established in 1946, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit institution that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and the workforce. AIR’s work is driven by its mission to generate and use rigorous evidence that contributes to a better, more equitable world. With headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, AIR has offices across the U.S. and abroad. For more information, visit www.air.org.
About Systems for Action
Systems for Action is a national research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aims to discover and apply new evidence about ways of aligning delivery and financing systems across the medical, public health, and social services sectors that advance health equity. For more information, visit systemsforaction.org.
About the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is committed to improving health and health equity in the United States. In partnership with others, we are committed to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime and paving the way together to a future where health is no longer a privilege but a right. To achieve that vision, we are deepening our focus on dismantling one of the biggest barriers to health in America, structural racism. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.