About IrIS

Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help refugees and other displaced people establish new lives, strengthen hope, dare to dream, and contribute to the vitality of communities in Connecticut and across the country. We also provide support to Americans who are sponsoring refugees for resettlement.

In welcoming peoples fleeing persecution and conflict, we are honoring our national heritage as a country of immigrants as well as our commitments under U.S. and international law. IRIS helps newcomers with services and support critical to their transition to self-sufficiency and to making local communities across the U.S. their home.

Workforce Development & Employment Services

WIN-WIN: Work-authorized refugees and immigrants meeting Connecticut’s workforce needs!

More than just securing the first job, we help English-language learners engage the interests, skills, and training they already have in careers that offer real potential for growth and advancement.

What’s needed?

Outreach to immigrant-serving organizations and communities across the state as many are unaware of how to access workforce training programs;
Targeted vocational English language instruction to maximize their ability to enter and complete training;
Job readiness support to connect qualified candidates with employers, and to navigate U.S. workplace norms and access opportunities.

These are the primary barriers to entry into existing workforce training programs. We can be the bridge that connects immigrant talent to workforce systems — and we have the team, experience, and a growing online/hybrid education platform to do it. We are ready to scale this work and serve more people.

Many employers already know that our clients are excellent employees. Please contact us if you have job openings!

Case Management

As federal funding cuts continue, we are preparing to maintain essential support with fewer resources.

Over 4,000 people resettled in the last five years still need guidance on housing, employment, education, and health care.
Many more immigrants in our region lack access to any formal support.

We’ve developed a new system for triaging and managing requests, allowing a smaller but deeply dedicated team to serve our community with compassion, clarity, and urgency.

Family literacy

Learning English is at the foundation of successful integration. IRIS provides ESOL (English for nonnative speakers) classes for refugee and immigrant adults. The Family Literacy program helps women and young children by providing infant care and a preschool readiness class. These classes help women who previously hesitated to venture outside their homes because they need to care for young children. It unlocks the English-speaking world—and employment opportunities—for women and ultimately for the next generation.

Youth Mentorship & Leadership Program

Even as future refugee arrivals dwindle, thousands of young people are already here — children and teens who arrived as refugees or immigrants in recent years.

Most have missed a year or more of school, and many are not literate in their native language, making learning English all the more difficult. Public schools are overwhelmed and often unequipped to meet these students’ academic and social-emotional needs.

Our after-school and summer programs provide:

A safe space for self-expression, belonging, and mentorship
Academic tutoring to boost performance and confidence
A focus on mental health, leadership, and empowerment

This is long-term, generational work — and we are committed to seeing it through.

Interpretation & Translation Services

We are proud that we already serve a growing number of clients in Connecticut. Now, we are scaling up to provide:

High-quality, affordable interpretation services for schools, courts, health care providers, and nonprofits
Document translation and localization services
Economic opportunity for current and former refugees, many of whom we resettled and trained as interpreters

We also see emerging potential to partner with AI ventures seeking multilingual data and white labeling services — creating ethical, mission-aligned economic opportunities for our community.

Immigration Legal Services

The Executive Orders issued on January 20th have triggered a tidal wave of rapid changes to immigration enforcement and policy. We are monitoring these changes and actively re-evaluating our legal program to determine how to:

Responsibly support asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors, and mixed-status families
Respond to increased detentions and expedited removals,
Secure the future of refugees and other immigrants who have a pathway to permanent status and citizenship, and
Navigate new legal pathways that remain viable options for those we serve.

We are currently adjusting our services given the policy and enforcement changes. We will have additional updates to share soon.