Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) in December received a check for $5.137 million from the “Matching Grant Program” funded by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement.
The grant funds help refugees and those seeking asylum gain self-sufficiency within four months, according to an LIRS news release.
The release said that the program “provides services and support to newly arrived refugees, newly granted asylees, Cuban and Haitian entrants, certain Amerasians, and certified victims of trafficking to facilitate self-sufficiency within four months of the client’s date of eligibility.”
According to the news release, the grant program’s funds match by a two-to-one ratio “in-kind and cash donations raised by the local affiliate. … Therefore, every dollar donated equals three dollars to the Matching Grant Program.”
The matching-grant checks are distributed annually, with the amount of the check varying year to year, based on the total number of clients served through that program.
For 2004, 21 LIRS affiliates in 34 locations (serving 3,702 clients) throughout the country participated in the program.
“Congregations and volunteers are … critical to the success of the Matching Grant program,” the news release says, “as they contribute time and goods and help refugees successfully transition to life in the United States.”
Posted Dec. 27, 2004
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