Church World Service helps immigrants settle in Triad

The United States grants approximately 675,000 immigrants permanent visas every year, and many choose to make the Piedmont Triad their home. An organization called Church World Service is there to guide them through relocation.

“Greensboro itself has a really long history of welcoming refugees dating back to the early 80s and welcoming Montagnard refugees from Southeast Asia,” says Megan Shepard, Greensboro Office Director and North Carolina State Director for Church World Service. “Over the last several years, we’ve seen large numbers of Afghans arrive through the Operation Allies Welcome Program, Ukrainians, Congolese, refugees from Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria, Central and South America. I mean, it’s really diverse.”

Regardless of the country they left behind, Church World Service Greensboro is ready to help immigrants and refugees find their new homes and new lives here in North Carolina.

“Our work entails a variety of services to really help folks stabilize and rebuild their lives here in the United States,” says Shepard. “So, we help with navigation support making sure folks are able to access things like employment and health care and education and English classes. We also provide immigration legal services for folks as they adjust their status to get a green card and eventually apply for U.S. citizenship.”

Greensboro is one of three Church World Service offices in our state. They’re also in Durham and Wilmington. The Greensboro office opened in 2009. Shepard says while things have certainly changed for immigrants under the Trump administration, the needs of the people CWS helps are still the same.

“The bulk of the folks that we’re working with are refugees who have been admitted through the U.S. refugee admissions program,” she says. “So, these are folks who have been forced to flee their home countries due to a well-founded fear of persecution, and the U.S. government has offered safety and protection to them and has offered them a permanent pathway to the United States where they’re on the track for U.S. citizenship.”

A $75,000 grant from the Women to Women Fund, hosted at the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, will provide navigation support for 200 refugees and immigrants in Greensboro. Shepard says the money comes at an important time and will help CWS continue to serve the immigrant and refugee population.

“Our programs have predominantly, in the past, been funded by the federal government, and with state funding via the federal government, and that has really changed a lot over the past year and will likely continue to change, so that funding from the Women to Women fund through the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro really provides us the stability to continue to carry out some of those essential services of making sure people can access things like health care and other resources that they may need.”