JFS SV Refugee Transportation Fund

Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley is  currently the only organization resettling refugees in Santa Clara County, California.  Our resettlement program is structured so that clients are continuously learning and developing an awareness of their surroundings so that they can become self-sufficient as soon as possible.  However, our clients can't easily get to many places that would help them to meet their basic needs.  Easing  transportation barriers would go such a long way toward helping them assimilate into and become self-sufficient US residents as quickly as possible. 

Our clients need to get to and from their various appointments. In Santa Clara County, they must attend multiple in-person interviews with admissions counselors from Medi-Cal, CalFresh, CalWORKS, and other assistance programs in order to be screened and enrolled.   We arrange their initial visits with social services: Social Security, Social Services Benefit Center, Social Services Central Intake Unit. We might be the ones to welcome them at the airport upon their arrival, when we take them to their first residence in the United States.  We run ESL (English as a second language) classes daily, and it's up to us to ensure that they have a way to get to and from their classes. When English competency is achieved, we help set up  first job interviews, and make sure they have a way to get to them as well. 

Due to the skyrocketing population in the Bay Area and heavy Silicon Valley traffic, as well as the unreliability of bus/train times and high transit fares, our refugees struggle to meet appointment times. Additional obstacles are faced by refugees who are older, have limited English skills, and/or have a past history of trauma that inhibits their ability to be in close, crowded areas.  This barrier is also problematic when clients cannot get to job interviews and medical appointments.

Any donation, no matter the size, would go such a long way toward transporting our clients to their goals.