​Mr. Frederick A.B. Jayweh and colleagues of the African Refugee and Immigrant community established the Center for Immigrants and Immigration Services (CIIS) after the Rocky Mountain Survivor Center closed to programming and services in 2009. CIIS partnered with two non-profits led by Dr. Bakary J Sonko and Mr. Rashid Sadiq, both African immigrants and former refugees. This union aimed to pool resources and enhance services for refugees, immigrants, asylees and other newcomers in Colorado. As of 2014, Colorado hosts 35,000 African immigrants, primarily around metro Denver. Center for Immigrants has 17 staff members, who provide services to about 2,000 refugee and immigrant households annually, in Colorado. We help jumpstart their lives and heal. 

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Resources

The Center for Immigrants and Immigration Services (CIIS) has an average annual budget of $1,500,000. Funding primarily comes from the Federal Government, Office for Refugee Resettlement (ORR). CIIS is also awarded funding from local Colorado foundations in metropolitan Denver such as Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, Rose Community Foundation, Colorado Health Foundation, The Colorado Trust Foundation, Caring for Colorado Foundation, Anschutz Family Foundation, Union Pacific Foundation, The St John's Cathedral Church, Montview Presbyterian, The Denver Foundation, and the UN Fund for Victims of Torture (UNVFVT).

Programs AND SERVICES

Center for Immigrants and Immigration Services (CIIS) offers programs and services to address the basic human needs of survivors of torture, asylum seekers, refugees, asylees and others arriving in the USA before they are fully resettled and integrated into mainstream society. These include: 1) Social Services, 2) Immigration and legal services, 3) Behavioral services, 4) Healthcare Services, 5) Housing and Homeownership Assistance. The specific details of these services are indicated: 

1. Social Services: a) Conducting ESL classes and vocational training like computer literacy; b) Providing monthly regional bus passes for transportation to appointments and community events; c) Delivering weekly food to needy families and individuals. d) Housing and Home ownership Assistance; e) Intensive case management, amongst others resettlement and integration support and assistance to help refugees and immigrants and members of their family to recover, heal and be restored to normal and productive life. 
    
2. Immigration and Legal Services: Over the past 16 years, the Center for Immigrants has established working relationships with various institutions including the University of Wyoming Law School’s Asylum Project, the University of Denver Sturm College of Law’s Asylum Project, the Colorado Asylum Project, Volunteer Immigration Lawyers of Colorado, and other private immigration attorneys who provide legal representation and pro bono services to victims of torture, asylum seekers, asylees, and refugee families. Furthermore, Center for Immigrants employs a part-time immigration attorney to routinely address its clients' immigration legal services needs.
   
   
3. Health Care Services: Refugees often have urgent healthcare needs due to their experiences. Center routinely partnered with metro-Denver healthcare institutions such as the University of Colorado School of Medicine, St. Joseph Exempla Hospital, Denver Health Hospital, and others to offer pro bono services to refugees. The pro bono healthcare support and services have help to save Center for Immigrants and its clients and members of their family thousands of healthcare dollars in the past 16 years. 
   
   
4. Behavioral Healthcare & Counseling Services: Behavioral healthcare is essential in the communities we serve due to the trauma and human rights abuses many refugees and asylum seekers experienced before arriving in the United States. The Center for Immigrants provides both in-house and community behavioral healthcare education, covering topics such as:   
   
   Stress reduction techniques 
   Information on psychotropic medications, facts and myths 
   Supporting a loved one with a behavioral health need 
   Healthcare and behavioral healthcare laws in the United States 
   Workshops using art for creative expression and community building 
   The relationship between nutrition and behavioral health 
   Parents' education on behavioral health to help them understand their children's emotions and behaviors. 
     
5. Dental and Oral Healthcare Services: Center for Immigrants has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with several dental health clinics in metro-Denver to receive and treat its participants. The Center's dental healthcare program consists of three main components: a) screening participants for dental problems, b) providing treatment through cash assistance to individuals identified as having dental issues, and c) offering community dental healthcare preventive education to reduce dental-related problems. Participants who need dental treatment are given vouchers up to $600 for treatment costs at collaborating dental clinics. The program primarily supports refugees and immigrants with inadequate or no dental insurance coverage within nearly 40 African Refugee and Immigrant communities served by the Center for Immigrants and Immigration Services (CIIS) to help meet the oral and dental services at no cost. 
   
   

In the past 16 years and due to limited funding, Center for Immigrants has been compelled to constantly reach out and refer all its clients with healthcare needs to Denver General Hospital, Caritas Clinic, Sister Bruno Clinic, Aurora Medical Center, University of Colorado School of Medicine, and other medical institutions and providers to provide the healthcare and treatment that our clients and members of their households and families needed having suffered tortured and other forms of human rights abuse and violation in their countries of origin and at the hands of their respective governments.