Join the Good Neighbor Society for

"A Taste of the Middle East"

Our Good Neighbor Society comprises folks who donate $100 or more to our annual fund! They’re generous people who understand the importance of having the flexibility that unrestricted funding gives us to help the immigrants and refugees we serve. 

Aside from getting the satisfaction of contributing to a good cause, Good Neighbor Society members get invited to special free events.

One is coming up!

A Taste of the Middle East Reception

Thursday, March 28, 2024, 6:00 pm-7:30 pm

864 Delaware Ave. Buffalo NY 14209 

Again, this special event is exclusive to our Good Neighbor Society members. If you’re interested, donate $100 or more to our annual fund, and you (and a guest) can join us for the fun!

If you want to attend the A Taste of the Middle East Reception (and be invited to all the others), join by clicking here.

Volunteer!

We’re always looking for folks to help us turn apartments into homes for our New American clients. Here volunteers Isabella (left), Hannah (right) join Jason (center), a recent arrival from Venezuela and client of our Professional Pathways Program.

Learn more about volunteer and intern opportunities at IIB.

Welcome New Americans!

Every month, we join the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services agency for its Naturalization Ceremony in Buffalo. Recently, we headed to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site to welcome 31 New Americans.

They may have been born in Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Bangladesh, Burma, Canada, China, Congo(Kinshasa), Dominican Republic, Eritrea, India, Jamaica, Korea, South Malaysia, Pakistan, Somalia, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam but now, after years of pursuing citizenship, they are Americans! 

Donations

Thanks to Wheels for Workers 716 who donated 18 bikes to help our clients navigate their city. If you want to donate in-kind items or cash, please let us know!

In honor of Black History Month, we recognized the economic, cultural, political, and social contributions of notable Black immigrants and refugees who’ve helped shape the vibrant tapestry of America. This month we featured:

In the Community: Jennifer Rizzo-Choi at Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site

Recently, IIB Executive Director Jennifer Rizzo-Choi discussed the history of immigration, underscoring the issue during Theodore Roosevelt’s lifetime during her presentation, “Immigration Will Always be an American Story.” She dispelled some persisting myths about immigrants and discussed positive impacts that New Americans have had in Western New York and the rest of the country. The presentation was part of the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site’s Speaker Series.

Media Mentions

Immigrants and refugees make up an important part of the hospitality industry. Every day, we train clients on how to successfully enter and stay in the American workforce. We also help employers identify people to join their teams. Spectrum News recently mentioned us in a piece about refugees excelling in the Western New York restaurant industry.

Click here if you’re an employer (or you know one) who is looking for a trained and well-motivated workforce.

Meet the Linguist

Noshin Chowdhury is a Bengali/ English translator for the International Institute of Buffalo. She learned English in school and came to the USA 19 years ago to be with her family. She also speaks Rohingya.

Her hobbies include cooking, reading books, and watching movies.

Learn more about becoming an interpreter or translator for the International Institute of Buffalo!

International Exchanges and Education

Community World Trivia, is scheduled for Thursday, May 9 and we’re looking for sponsors and teams to join us for one of the most exciting fundraisers in WNY! It’s a fun and educational trivia contest. Last year's winning team is pictured above. We'd love to see you there! 

Coming sooner! Thirty-nine local public and private schools are getting ready for Model UN 2024 on March 19, of which 12 are Buffalo Public Schools! We’re very happy that more BPS students have participated recently. Model UN is a great opportunity for students to build on their research, public speaking, and conflict resolution skills by acting as diplomats for the day.

We were honored to recently host four international visitors from Uzbekistan. This group visited five cities in the U.S. to discuss best practices and connect for future collaboration to establish a National Public Health Institute upon returning home.

Our Cultural Competency sessions help organizations with classes on how to work effectively with immigrant and refugee staff and clients from all over the world. This month, we conducted trainings for D’Youville Pharmacy students, a Health Disparities class at Daemen University, and we visited Tapestry Charter Middle School for their Career Day expedition with the theme of “Finding Home.”

Learn more about how our International Exchanges and Education team increases knowledge and understanding in our community.  

Interpreting & Translation

The most requested languages for the Interpreting & Translation team recently have been Arabic, Bengali (Bangla), Burmese, Dari (Afghan Persian, Afghan Farsi), Kinyarwanda, Rohingya, Somali, and Spanish.

The Interpreting team offers onsite interpretation and on-demand phone and audio/video remote services in over 85 languages. Last month, the team provided 1,933 interpreting services in 46 different language groups.

The Translation team completed 107 individual projects last month. Most of these projects were for schools, government agencies, tourist attractions, and local employers. Individual projects included personal documents and human resource documents.

Some interesting projects were for:

Learn about our Interpreting & Translation team's efforts to bridge the language access gap in our community.  

New American Integration

We recently partnered with Buffalo Art Studios to help break down language barriers and allow some of our newest neighbors to express themselves before developing a better grasp of English. Thirty-one clients, seven interpreters, and a handful of IIB staff created artwork together to showcase what home means to them through painting tiles.

February was a busy month for our resettlement team! We welcomed 37 New Americans from Afghanistan, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Iraq, Myanmar, and Tanzania. We set up eight homes for them.  

Notable Arrival: We have a single mother arriving with her child who was born in the DRC. She’s been waiting in a Tanzanian refugee camp to come to the US since 2004. Recently, she found out she would be resettled by IIB and would get to live close to her dad, who was resettled by IIB last year, and her extended family. Donations from generous community members helped furnish her apartment since she has limited assistance.

Our Preferred Communities Program, which provides help to clients with disabilities or other significant medical needs, is currently assisting 20 clients.

Learn more about the great work done by our New American Integration team. 

Professional Training

Aside from resettling New Americans, we help them with their employment.

We recently launched our Career Club, a career development workshop series designed to supplement our job coaching services, including resume and cover letter reviews and mock interviews. The workshops will be conducted at least twice monthly.  Recently, Dr. Carrie Florea, IIB HR Director, offered a presentation on resume and interview tips, which was a great opportunity to ask questions directly to an HR professional. 

IIB’s Professional Pathways provides academic and career development for qualifying refugees, immigrants, and asylees. Our team is divided into two programs - one through the Office of New Americans (ONA), and the other through the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Both programs work to help highly-skilled and educated refugees and immigrants return to their career fields and attain their academic and professional goals here in Buffalo. There are over 130 clients enrolled in ORR Pathways and 77 in ONA Pathways.

Learn more about how we connect workers with potential employers.

Survivor Support

Survivor Support Services is hosting information sessions as part of its outreach and education efforts. Our goal is to educate the community while bringing awareness to the services offered by our expert Survivor Support team for victims of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking.

Over the next few months, we’ll be in the community discussing the following topics:

Locations are pending confirmation, but if you are interested in these topics or future community presentations, please email sriley@iibuff.org.

So too, the International Institute of Buffalo is a member of the Western District of New York Trafficking Task Force, which educates law enforcement, the legal community, non-government organizations, community groups, and other members of the public about the services available to survivors of human trafficking.

The task force will present a Regional Human Trafficking Conference with a panel discussion on NGO/Attorney Response to Trafficking Victims, with a Question & Answer session to follow. That happens on Friday, 4/19/2024 at the Rochester Institute of Technology Campus Center. For more information, please contact kryan@iibuff.org.

Learn more about how our Survivor Support team helps people who are targets of Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking.

Come Work with Us!

If you want a career that makes Western New York a place for, and because of, immigrants and refugees, please take a look at our careers page.