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Family Services for Refugees

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Hi, my name is Alison, and I’m starting a nonprofit to help recent immigrants and refugees in Southern New Jersey. I started to realize there was an unmet need in this population when I was working in a pediatric dental office in Collingswood. There were many families who had recently arrived from war-affected areas of the world and seemed to lack much of the structure and support that is found in large-scale immigrant communities (such as what form in Philadelphia or Atlanta). The families I am hoping to help are those who have recently arrived and need greater support for the transition through their culture shock, language learning, connecting with locals, and everything else that’s involved in putting roots down in a new country.


Starting in May, Crossing the Gap will offer a free 3 week series of ESL classes. These will be advertised, as much as possible, to the recent immigrants and refugees living in Camden County. Volunteers will be present to help direct the classes, to provide childcare for the young children, and to be a friendly presence welcoming in these new neighbors.

During the three weeks, we intend to see the families make a positive connection with families in the Collingswood area. We plan to provide quality English language instruction that is very practical to the learner’s immediate needs and a learned atmosphere that lowers the barriers of fear and embarrassment that often deter a learner’s progress.

We also plan to gain a better understanding of the needs as the immigrants see them so that future efforts can be designed around those needs. Future goals include providing more ESL classes in both group and one-on-one formats, supporting kids in the transition into English-only classes at school, supporting individuals with any post-traumatic stress effects from moving from a war-affected country, providing transportation so people can get to the services that are available, and much more.



To provide quality English language instruction that will enable to participants to engage in their community successfully


To allow a platform where immigrant families can build connections with one another, as well as with American locals, thereby helping them become established and confident members of our community


To connect immigrant families to existing services by creating a network, increasing communication amongst disparate organizations, and assisting with transportation between various services


To support the needs of recent immigrants that are not already provided for through existing organizations



This initial Gofundme drive has a goal amount $2000. It is intended as Kickstarter money for the program as a whole. One day, we’d love to see the organization become grant funded or self-sufficient, but this is the beginning of the beginning. Some of the things the funds are needed for are:

To buy all of the advertising materials. Posters, flyers, cards, etc.

To purchase any class supplies that aren’t available by donation. Such as objects specific to particular lessons, any textbooks or translation dictionaries, etc.

To support “hands on learning experiences” such as field trips to school locations where participants can use their recently acquired English to enroll their kids in school, or to the Zoo where they can do an “exam” of their animal vocabulary.

To pay for any costs associated with actually opening a non-profit. There are filing fees, lawyer fees, and other business related costs that can’t be avoided in this process.

Anything else that comes up along the way! A detailed budget of our costs can be provided upon request.



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Organizer

Alison DiGiacomo
Organizer
Collingswood, NJ

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