Help Our Newest Neighbors Succeed

Your gift goes to work immediately, directly helping those who need it most. Select JFCS, or designate your gift to JFCS Refugee and Immigrant Services in the designation drop-down menu on the Donate page.

How can you help families who are newly arrived in our community?

We’re helping refugee families who have been displaced from their homes. If you want to make a difference in the lives our new neighbors, please consider donating! Click the link for the donation list below.

Check out the Amazon Wishlist for refugee arrivals and select a gift to donate!

Questions, please contact us at 412-422-7200 or refugee@jfcspgh.org.

Volunteers have been the cornerstone of JFCS’s existence since the agency’s inception. Volunteers who work with us tell us they find the experience often just as meaningful and rewarding as it is for the individuals we serve.

We are enrolling new individuals and families in our youth programs, and they would benefit from having a volunteer to help their integration process. The volunteer opportunities described below are primarily in-person. Almost all refugee families have received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine. The families all live in different neighborhoods in Allegheny County so there is likely a family near you.

Home Set-ups: Set up refugee clients’ permanent housing with daily essentials, such as having furniture set up and kitchen needs by providing them with a welcoming space to live in.

Hotel Set-ups: Set up hotel rooms for newly arrived refugees – unpacking and organizing essential items from boxes and putting them in the appropriate places. Volunteers will also help in other ways as needed.

Hot Meal Delivery: Make a newly arrived refugee who misses home feel more welcome by picking up a culturally appropriate hot meal and bring it to their temporary housing.

Refugee Social Integration: Help and mentor vulnerable refugees, particularly those with medical or mental health issues, LGBTI+ refugees, single parent households, and older adult refugees without family support.

Bridge Builders: Mentor and enrich the lives of youth, immigrants and refugees as a part of the after-school program! It is designed to ease the adjustment period for new arrivals by helping them with literacy building activities, practice with conversational English, mentoring, homework assistance, physical activities, and community service.

Questions, please contact us at 412-422-7200 or refugee@jfcspgh.org.

When you sign up, please note that the opportunity might not begin immediately.

To learn more about opportunities with JFCS Refugee and Immigrant Services and JFCS Immigration Legal Services, click here.

Do you want to get involved in a new way?

Through JFCS’s new Community Sponsorship Program, faith-based and organized community groups can directly engage in refugee resettlement efforts. Partnering with faith-based organizations has been essential to JFCS’s resettlement work, with congregations of different faiths coming together to cook welcome meals, donate furniture, help with housing set-ups, and educate the community about refugees in our city. Now, faith-based organizations have a chance to get involved in an even deeper way.

By becoming a Community Sponsor for one or more refugee families through JFCS’s Community Sponsorship Program, your group can provide direct assistance for the first year of their lives here in Pittsburgh! You’ll be invited to participate in all aspects of resettlement—from initial meetings with prospective families through their first year here—and have access to training opportunities throughout that time. All while building relationships with other community members who care deeply about welcoming new neighbors into our city!

Does your organization want to strengthen local community support for refugees and immigrants by sponsoring a newly arrived refugee or their family?

Contact us at 412-722-4200 or refugee@jfcspgh.org to learn more about this exciting way to help our newest neighbors thrive!

Helping refugees find a home in Pittsburgh is an important part of our work. We’re looking for landlords willing to rent to people who don’t have a credit history in the US, and we’re looking for people interested in temporarily hosting someone who has recently arrived (this option is limited to homes that have a private entrance).

Please contact us at refugee@jfcpsgh.org to speak to someone about renting or hosting.