The Jewish Community Alliance for Refugee Resettlement (JCARR) was formed in 2015 as a partnership of five synagogues (two are Reform and three are Conservative) and the Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven. JCARR has successfully resettled four refugee families from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Syria and Iraq; they are assisting with support for an asylum-seeking family from Angola as a co-sponsor with Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS), the main refugee agency in Connecticut.

JCARR has received a Kraus Immigration Justice Mini-Grant of $5,000 to support vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kraus funds will enable JCARR to assist three immigrant families with a total of 10 children, who are struggling during the COVID-19 crisis. The monies will be used:

• to bolster the families’ access to high-speed internet to support the children’s education while school is conducted partly or wholly online;
• to buy a set of ESL materials designed for specific grade levels;
• to select and train tutors to work individually with each child who needs assistance; and
• to provide stability to the children’s lives by helping the families meet emergency needs at a time of reduced income due to the pandemic.

While JCARR's goal is to help the families become self-sufficient, they consider it their responsibility to provide an educational and financial safety net for them during this crisis.

“Research has shown that learning is less cognitively taxing and more permanent when gained through books and paper as opposed to screens,” JCARR’s lead ESL tutor shares. “This is why I am grateful to the Kraus Grant for enabling us to put appropriate reading materials into the hands of JCARR students, their parents and their tutors.”

JCARR will be sharing periodic updates about their work in the Tent. You may reach out directly to the JCARR Coordinator, Jean Silk, at jsilk@jewishnewhaven.org.

To make an online donation, go to jewishnewhaven.org/refugee-resettlement/give. You can also send checks payable to The Jewish Federation, with JCARR in the memo line, to The Jewish Federation, 360 Amity Road, Woodbridge, 06525. Attention: Amy Holtz.