Refugee Family Services, Inc.

Refugee Family Services, Inc. (RFS) supports the efforts of refugee women and children to achieve self-sufficiency in the United States by providing education, job readiness training and job placement. The agency is located in DeKalb County, Georgia and focuses on the women and children who have limited access to the social safety net.  In 2011, RFS served 48 PACE children, 32 of whom received Light Touch services. Thirty-three of the children speak Kurdish, and 13 of them speak Somali.

Refugee Family Services also operates as one of the only two pre-K programs in the United States and the only one in the Southeast dedicated to ensuring refugee children enter Kindergarten prepared to learn.  RFS is unique to DeKalb County in its ability to provide linguistically and culturally appropriate services to refugees - especially those who are no longer eligible for assistance from resettlement agencies, which typically end three to six months from arrival to the US.  Many RFS employees are refugees themselves and RFS employees speak over 20 languages, enabling the agency to recruit and effectively serve families with young children in a culturally competent and family friendly manner. 

RFS youth programs include PAT, pre-K, group and individual after-school tutoring and programming.  Programs targeted to women include family and financial literacy, employment counseling, domestic violence prevention, and other services designed to promote self sufficiency, including employment, literacy and parenting skills. 

In 2002-2008, Refugee Family Services was part of the SPARK Georgia Initiative which helped communities in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties combine resources to better prepare children for school, specifically targeting children ages 3-6 who were vulnerable to poor achievement.  After SPARK, RFS became a "learning lab" for the PACE Initiative and continued to implement the three strategies of PACE - home visitation, school transition and parent leadership.  Like Scottdale and Families First, RFS was titled as a "learning lab" to serve as a model hub for replication of the PACE Initiative in future hub sites.  In 2011, Refugee Family Services became an active member of PACE's early learning network and continues to enjoy United Way support.