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In submitting an application for employment, the applicant grants IRIS permission to check references as well as question anyone who might be familiar with the candidate’s job performance.

IRIS has a casual work atmosphere where everyone’s opinions and ideas are valued. We’re committed to work-life balance and offer everyone opportunities to learn, experiment, and grow. If you’re looking to add meaningful purpose to your work or want a life-changing fellowship to get your career off on the right foot, then you’ll love working here. Please see our open positions and volunteer opportunities below.

IRIS is a dynamic immigrant services agency. We serve people from all over the world who are starting new lives in Connecticut and are on the path to self-sufficiency. IRIS’s mission is to welcome refugees and other immigrants, help them rebuild their lives, pursue their dreams, and contribute to the vitality of their communities. We envision a society where all immigrants are valued, respected, and able to thrive.

Are you passionate about helping refugee and immigrant youth build pathways to education, employment, and long-term opportunity?

IRIS is seeking a compassionate, organized, and relationship-centered Case Manager to provide
direct support to refugee and immigrant youth and young adults participating in the INTEGRITY
Program (Integrating Networks for the Training, Empowerment, & Growth of Refugee &
Immigrant Transitional-Age Youth). Working closely with students, families, schools, ReadyCT,
employers, and community partners, the Case Manager will help participants identify goals,
address barriers, access resources, and stay engaged in education, workforce readiness, career
exploration, and post-secondary pathways.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

The INTEGRITY Program is a partnership between IRIS and ReadyCT that helps refugee and immigrant youth and young adults build pathways to education, employment, postsecondary success, and long-term economic mobility through career-connected learning, workforce readiness activities, family engagement, and supportive services. The program serves both school-based youth and young adults ages 18–22 who are outside the traditional high school system, including those who may be enrolled in adult education or GED programs, already working, unemployed or underemployed, or disconnected from clear education and
career pathways.

ReadyCT contributes career-connected learning, workforce readiness activities, and employer connections, while IRIS provides culturally responsive, trauma-informed case management, family engagement, service coordination, and wraparound support. Together, the partners help young people strengthen the skills, confidence, connections, and support needed to succeed in school, work, and community life.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The INTEGRITY Case Manager serves as a primary point of contact for participating students
and families. This role provides individualized case management, conducts intake and
assessment, develops service plans, coordinates referrals, supports participant engagement, and
helps youth address barriers that may affect school participation, workforce readiness, career
exploration, internship participation, and long-term success. The Case Manager will also support
young adults ages 18–22 who are not currently enrolled in high school by helping them connect
to adult education, GED, ESOL, workforce training, employment services, career readiness
programming, or other appropriate next steps.

This is a hands-on, student- and family-facing role. The Case Manager will spend significant
time communicating directly with youth and caregivers, coordinating with school and
community partners, documenting services, participating in case reviews, and supporting
workshops, outreach, family engagement activities, employer-related events, and other program
components. The position requires strong follow-through, cultural humility, attention to detail,
and the ability to build trust across diverse communities.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO THE ROLE

Do you thrive on building relationships, solving practical problems, and helping young people
move toward their goals? We are looking for a professional who brings:
• A strong commitment to immigrant integration, youth development, educational equity,
and economic mobility.
• At least two years of experience working with youth, young adults, immigrants, refugees,
students, families, or other diverse populations.
• Strong case management, relationship-building, follow-up, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to communicate clearly and respectfully with students, families, school staff,
employers, service providers, and community partners.
• Experience completing intake, assessment, service planning, referrals, case notes, and
participant documentation.
• Ability to work effectively with individuals from diverse cultural and linguistic
backgrounds using trauma-informed and strengths-based approaches.
• Comfort using Microsoft Office, spreadsheets, databases, and other data tracking systems
to maintain accurate records and monitor participant progress.
• A bachelor’s degree in social work, human services, education, psychology, counseling,
workforce development, or a related field; equivalent relevant experience may be
considered.
• A valid driver’s license and ability to travel throughout Connecticut as needed.
Preferred
• Experience working with refugee and immigrant communities.
• Experience in youth development, young adult support, workforce development,
education, career readiness, school-based programming, adult education/GED navigation,
or postsecondary navigation.
• Fluency or proficiency in a language commonly spoken by IRIS participants.
• Knowledge of Connecticut education, workforce, and community service systems.
• Experience supporting multilingual families and coordinating interpretation or translation
support.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Student Case Management & Individualized Support
• Manage a caseload of refugee and immigrant youth participating in the INTEGRITY
Program.
• Conduct outreach, intake, screening, enrollment, orientation, and ongoing participant
engagement activities.
• Complete assessments and develop individualized service plans with youth and families.
• Help out-of-school young adults ages 18–22 identify education and employment goals
and connect to appropriate next steps, including adult education, GED, ESOL, workforce
training, employment services, or community-based supports.
• Conduct regular check-ins with students to monitor progress toward educational,
employment, postsecondary, and personal goals.
• Identify barriers impacting participation and success and coordinate timely interventions.
• Connect participants to IRIS services and external community resources, including
education, employment, health, mental health, housing, transportation, benefits, and other
supports.
• Maintain consistent communication with students and families using culturally
responsive and trauma-informed approaches.

School, Workforce & Postsecondary Navigation
• Collaborate with school staff, guidance counselors, teachers, ReadyCT staff, and
community partners to support student success.
• Support participants in exploring career pathways, internships, work-based learning
opportunities, credential options, and postsecondary pathways.
• Assist youth with resume development, interview preparation, workplace readiness,
professional communication, and other employment-related skills.
• Monitor attendance and engagement in workshops, career-connected learning activities,
internships, and other program components.
• Support students in meeting eligibility and participation requirements for internships and
workforce opportunities coordinated through the program partnership.
Family Engagement & Resource Coordination
• Build strong, trusting working relationships with parents and caregivers.
• Conduct family outreach and provide ongoing updates regarding participant progress,
program expectations, and available resources.
• Assist with family workshops, orientation sessions, community events, and other
engagement activities.
• Coordinate interpretation and translation support when needed.
• Help families navigate school systems, workforce programs, community services, and
other supports that strengthen youth success and retention.

Documentation, Data & Compliance
• Maintain accurate and timely case notes, service records, assessments, referrals,
participant files, and other required documentation.
• Track participant outcomes, attendance, services delivered, referrals, follow-up activities,
and progress toward program goals.
• Enter and maintain data in program databases and reporting systems.
• Assist with data collection and documentation needed for funder reporting and outcome
measurement.
• Ensure compliance with confidentiality requirements, funder expectations, and IRIS
policies.

Program Operations & Collaboration
• Participate in team meetings, case reviews, supervision, training, and professional
development activities.
• Collaborate closely with the INTEGRITY Program Manager, ReadyCT staff, school
partners, and community organizations to ensure coordinated support for participants.
• Support program recruitment, outreach, participant retention, workshops, special events,
employer engagement activities, and community presentations as needed.
• Contribute to continuous improvement efforts by identifying participant needs,
implementation challenges, and opportunities for program enhancement.

WHY JOIN IRIS?

At IRIS, you will join a mission-driven organization dedicated to welcoming refugees and
immigrants and helping individuals and families rebuild their lives in Connecticut. This role
offers the opportunity to work directly with young people and families, strengthen access to education and workforce pathways, and contribute to a new partnership designed to expand long-
term opportunity for refugee and immigrant youth.

REPORTS TO

INTEGRITY Program Manager

BENEFITS

Competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, vision, paid
time off, holidays, life insurance, disability insurance, and eligibility for participation in the IRIS
retirement plan.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Frequent travel throughout Greater Hartford and surrounding communities, including schools, community-based organizations, partner sites, and employer or workforce-
related locations.
• Ability to attend and support workshops, meetings, orientations, family engagement
activities, and community events that may require extended periods of standing and
movement.
• Ability to transport program materials and supplies for trainings, outreach, workshops, or
events as needed.
• Ability to work effectively in school, office, and community environments and maintain
regular in-person engagement with participants, families, and partners.
• Ability to maintain timely documentation, protect confidential information, and manage
multiple participant follow-up needs in a fast-paced program environment.

Location: Greater Hartford, Connecticut (Hybrid) – regular travel throughout Hartford and
surrounding communities required.

MORE

VIEW MORE JOBS

We Don’t Put Politics Before People

At a time when policies are freezing green card applications, stalling asylum decisions, and throwing long-settled families into uncertainty, IRIS is staying focused on what matters: safety, stability, and real community for newcomers.

DONATE NOW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 17, 2026 

Media inquiries: 

IRIS: Maggie Mitchell Salem, msalem@irisct.org  

Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services (IRIS) Collaborates with League of Women Voters of Connecticut for Constitution and Citizenship Day 

Partnership raises awareness of the importance of voter registration, provides translated materials 

NEW HAVEN, CT — In honor of this year’s Constitution and Citizenship Day, Integrated Refugee & Immigration Services (IRIS) and the League of Women Voters of Connecticut (LWVCT) are reminding newcomers and the community at large of their partnership to ensure that new citizens are able to access and participate in America’s elections. Each organization carries its own mission and history, but each has a simple conviction: a democracy that values the constitution and citizenship must be one where everyone can participate fully and with dignity. 

“Taken together, these two organizations’ missions form a response to the particular challenges of this moment: deep polarization, the spread of disinformation, and barriers to civic participation,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, Executive Director of IRIS. “For many families IRIS serves — newcomers shaped by past experiences in countries where political engagement carries life-threatening risk — voting and civic life can feel distant or even dangerous. That is where collaboration matters.” 

The League of Women Voters of Connecticut focuses on the engine democracy runs on: informed, active participation in elections. The League is nonpartisan but not neutral about democracy itself. It believes every eligible voter should be able to understand the issues, access the ballot, and have their vote counted — no exceptions. 

IRIS has been translating LWVCT voter education materials into the languages spoken by refugee and immigrant communities. “When a newly naturalized citizen receives clear, trustworthy, nonpartisan information about how to register and where to vote in their first language, a door opens,” Mitchell continued. “The message arrives alongside the words: you belong here; this democracy is yours too.” 

“How great is it in America to be able to vote in free and fair elections?” said Patricia Rossi and Laura Smits, Co-Presidents of LWVCT. “Live in another country for a while and see how rare and precious that is!” 

Voter registration materials offered by the LWVCT have been translated into multiple languages including Spanish, Swahili, Portuguese, Chinese, Pashto, Dari and Arabic. Residents can access the translated materials at: 

English / Spanish

Swahili

Portuguese

Chinese

Pashto​

Dari​

Arabic ​

About IRIS: Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services  

IRIS welcomes refugees and other immigrants, helps them rebuild their lives, pursue their dreams, and contribute to the vitality of their communities. Founded in 1982, IRIS advances economic mobility, legal stability, language equity, and civic engagement through its New Americans platform. Learn more at irisct.org.  

About the League of Women Voters of Connecticut 

The League is a political grassroots network and membership organization that believes the freedom to vote is a nonpartisan issue. For more than a century, we’ve worked to empower voters and defend democracy. As a women-led organization, we encourage everyone to take part in our democracy. 

 

 

FILL MOBILE FORM HERE

PUBLISHED BY THE DAY Oct 29, 2025

AG Tong, talking immigration in New London: 'They will make it if we fight for them'

 
tong-speaking-on-immigration

Attorney General William Tong speaks at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation in New London on Wednesday, Oct. 29. The event by Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services focused on the impact of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. (Alison Cross/The Day)

By Alison Cross
Day Staff Writer
 
New London — State Attorney General William Tong visited the city Monday evening to share a message of hope and resistance amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The event at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Congregation was organized by Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services, the New Haven-based nonprofit known as IRIS.
Since 1982, IRIS has welcomed and resettled thousands of refugees and immigrants within the state, but Maggie Mitchell Salem, the organization’s executive director, said new federal policies have upended longstanding pathways to legal immigration.
As a result of these changes, Mitchell Salem said IRIS will not participate in the U.S. government-supported refugee admissions program for the first time in the nonprofit’s history, starting on Jan. 1. Mitchell Salem said IRIS will continue to resettle refugees from Afghanistan and other countries without federal funding.
During his speech, Tong described the Trump administration’s policies and actions over the last nine months as “awful, brutal, (and) painful.” Tong spoke about lawsuits he has filed against the federal government to block the Trump administration from ending birthright citizenship and coercing states into following the administration’s immigration agenda.
Tong said people often put refugees and immigrants into separate categories but “very often they’re one and the same.”
“My grandparents and my dad ran for their lives (from China),” Tong said. “I’m a kid that comes from refugees and immigrants. I grew up in a Chinese restaurant. … If you go to a takeout joint around here and you see a high schooler ring up your Tuesday night takeout, that was me.”
“In one generation, I went from that hot Chinese restaurant kitchen in the state of Connecticut in Wethersfield, to being the 25th attorney general of the state,” Tong continued. “I don’t tell you that story because it’s a good story, I tell you that story because it is an unremarkable story. It is a story shared by so many people. And there are kids right now, our kids in this city, the sons and daughters and grandchildren of refugees and immigrants who are just like us … and I know they will make it if we fight for them right now.”
Maryam Elahi, the president and chief executive officer of the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut, said that right now, children are not getting an education because “so many parents are terrified to take their kids to school (and) pick them up.”
“This is not acceptable,” Elahi said.
Elahi encouraged people to reframe the way they speak about immigrants.
“Unless you’re a Native American, you’re an immigrant in this country,” she said. “Some of us came earlier on boats. Some of us came later by foot or plane or both, but the end result is the same. It’s really important for all of us to change the narrative, to talk about immigrants as all of us, to talk about immigrants as people who bring so much richness to our community and to put our arms around them.”
Jeanne Milstein, the human services director for the city, said that New London’s history is rooted in immigrant communities who have made the city stronger.
“It is our diversity which is our strength. New London is a seaport town. It has always been a rich mix of people. It is a community where everyone is welcome,” Milstein said. “The feds may be trying to kill the American dream, but here in New London, it is alive and well.”

PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD COURANT

After four decades, CT organization won’t resettle refugees this year. Here’s why

For the first time in more than four decades Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services made the decision to not resettle refugees through the United States Refugee Admissions program, due to the Trump administration’s intent to shift the program’s focus.
“We will not resettle populations that aren’t refugees,” said Maggie Mitchell Salem, director of IRIS. “That is basically the point. This is not about Afrikaners or right wing groups in Europe. This is not about ideology or politics. This is about our mission. Our mission is to resettle the world’s most vulnerable people who have been screened for the credible fear they possess which keeps them from going home.”
Mitchell Salem added: “We are not a relocation service. We work with and for a very specific population and as part of the humanitarian pathway within this immigration system.”
The New York Times reported Wednesday that the Trump administration “is considering a radical overhaul of the U.S. refugee system that would slash the program to its bare bones while giving preference to English speakers, white South Africans and Europeans who oppose migration.” 
The Trump administration has said that white South African farmers face discrimination and violence at home, which the country’s government strongly denies.
The IRIS board made the decision last month to change course after learning about the Trump’s administration’s plans to change the refugee program, including limiting the number of refugees to 30,000 to 40,000, Mitchell Salem said.
“That only reinforced that decision,” Mitchell said. “We have never had to question the U.S. government’s decision. This is not about who is in charge of our government. We have supported refugee resettlement in Republican administrations, and Democratic administrations without fail. We had to do some critical thinking about whether based on what we understood to be the administration’s policy on the U.S. refugee program, whether there was an alignment between our mission and how they were implementing the program.”
The Church World Service, which IRIS is an affiliate of, and contracts with the State Department to help refugees “expressed its dismay and deep concern in response to the Trump administration’s plans to reduce the refugee admissions’ goal “to the lowest level in history,” according to a press release from the agency.
New numbers reported from the Associated Press suggest the Trump administration is considering admitting far fewer refugees than IRIS had initially learned, with just 7,500 admitted.
Dana Bucin, an immigration attorney and partner with Harris Beach Murtha in Hartford, said the administration’s ban against refugees at the beginning of 2025 is not advisable.
“The entire policy that is against refugees in particular is harmful at a time when the world is seeing a record number of refugees due to wars, civil wars, famine, climate change and a bunch of other factors,” she said. “We have never had so many refugees as we do now and so few tools to deal with them and so definitely in general an anti-refugee policy is not conducive to humanitarian endeavors.”
Bucin said she does not believe that all Afrikaners qualify as a group for refugee status.
“But as attorneys we are open to hearing of any individualized case of persecution for Afrikaners, much like anyone else,” she said.
Since the Trump administration suspended the refugee program in January, IRIS relocated its New Haven office and had to shut its Hartford office.
In fiscal year 2024, IRIS served more than 2,000 people and resettled 900 refugees.
In fiscal year 2025 they were planning to resettle 800 refugees but have only been able to settle 241 refugees as many were denied entry or delayed.
As a result of the suspension of the refugee program, IRIS lost about $4 million in funding and had to lay off employees.
In the United States, some 128,000 refugees have currently been approved for resettlement in the United States and are now stuck in limbo, said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, the Jewish refugee resettlement agency. In addition, 14,000 Jews, Christians and other religious minorities in Iran have long been registered with the refugee program.
New vision
IRIS is not suspending its activities though. The organization is realigning its focus to help refugees and immigrants with assistance securing housing, food, addressing health issues and advocating for more English Language Learning programs to help them succeed in the workforce, Mitchell Salem said.
Mitchell Salem said she is concerned about provisions in Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill particularly eliminating SNAP for refugees. She said IRIS needs more support to provide basic proteins for refugees in its food pantry.
Targeting ELL programs aligned to workforce development programs is critical, she said, so “people are getting the right vocational training and entering these programs successfully and entering higher paying jobs in the healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing sector. This is a win for the state. The state has to become more competitive.”
Mitchell Salem said IRIS will focus on deepening partnerships with the Chambers of Commerce and workforce boards and adult literacy organizations that exist in every town and city in the state.
In addition to those being barred from entering the country, Mitchell Salem said immigrants who are here are being terrorized. Calling it inhumane, Mitchell Salem said rounding up of people in the community at their place of employment is having an impact on everyone.
“It is going to impact the price of food and whether your grandmother is being taken care of in an assisted living community,” she said. “It is impacting employers. It is impacting tax bases. You don’t remove this significant number of people from our community and have no impact.”
With ICE arrests continuing in Connecticut and immigrant advocates calling for state officials to act, lawmakers are in discussions about increasing legal protections during an upcoming special session.
ICE agents stormed a Hamden car wash Wednesday and detained and took away eight people including a husband and wife and a customer, according to information from state Sen. Jorge Cabrera’s office.
“Since we passed the TRUST Act a decade ago, Connecticut has always carved out exceptions for dangerous felons,” Cabrera said in a statement. ”Democrats don’t have a problem with that. Neither does the governor. What we do have a problem with is Donald Trump and ICE telling us that they are arresting the scum of the Earth – murderers and gang members and pedophiles. And then who do they arrest? Landscapers. Dishwashers. High school kids. People working at car washes.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Originally Published: 

October 17, 2025 at 5:37 AM ED