The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announces the availability of funds and award procedures for fiscal year 2017 under the Preferred Communities (PC) Program.

The twin goals of the PC Program are:
The successful resettlement and

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integration of especially vulnerable refugees (and other ORR client populations); and The enhancement of refugee service providers’ capacity to serve such populations at new or established PC locations.

ORR aims to achieve these goals by awarding grants, under cooperative agreements, to well-qualified refugee service providers that operate under cooperative agreements with the Department of State and/or the Department of Homeland Security, to offer a range of reception and placement (R&P) services to refugees and other ORR client populations through a national network of resettlement locations across the United States.

While R&P services effectively support many newly arriving refugees in their initial resettlement phase, an increasing number of especially vulnerable individuals still have difficulty navigating systems and attaining self-sufficiency after the completion of R&P services.

With limited material and human resources, agencies in turn find it challenging to deliver the specialized supporting services necessary for such individuals.

By providing PC funds, ORR intends to facilitate the enhancement of PC Programs’ ability to place vulnerable refugees in areas where they are most likely to achieve self-sufficiency, and to offer specialized services.

The enhanced capacity of PC Programs to afford especially vulnerable refugees access to specialized services such as intensive case management is intended to result in these refugees’ attainment of self-sufficiency in their vulnerable life areas, which may include medical disabilities, trauma, and lack of access to supporting services.