About Us
Each year, the New Zealand government selects 750 refugees for resettlement in our country. Refugee Services is the primary agency helping them to settle and adjust within their new communities.
We are concerned with refugee resettlement on three levels:
- service provision;
- public and community education;
- refugee policy and best-practice development.
Service provision
Refugee Services provides a range of practical support services to assist refugees with the many challenges of adjusting to life in a new culture and society.
Our services include:
- Pre-arrival planning
- On-arrival assessment
- Individual Case Plan development
- Community placement
- Advice, information and advocacy
- Crisis intervention and home-based family support programmes
- Community orientation
- Community linkages and referrals services
- Volunteer training, deployment and support
Our Client Services are delivered via a unique "three-way" model of support. Using the combined skills of the agency's professional social workers, Cross Cultural Workers and trained community volunteers, we seek to build on the strengths identified in every refugee client.
Public education
- Our volunteer training programme is currently unique among resettlement countries. It provides a nationally-recognised NZQA certificate course that is designed to equip community volunteers with the knowledge and skills needed to assist newly-arrived refugees with the challenges of early integration. Graduates of the course (known as Volunteer Support Workers or VSW's) receive a certificate in "Refugee Resettlement Support".
- Refugee Services has become increasingly recognised for the quality of its public and community education programmes. There is frequent demand for presentations and workshops from educational institutes, schools, government departments and community groups.
- Over recent years, our staff members have been key contributors to conferences and symposiums in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada and Turkey.
Refugee policy
Throughout its history, Refugee Services has played an active role in both monitoring and contributing to the development of national and international policies relating to refugee resettlement. Its activities in this area include:
- Policy monitoring and comment;
- Contributions to national and international policy development
- Ongoing liaison with members of ICVA (International Council of Voluntary Agencies) and international NGO resettlement partners around the globe.
- Regular participation in national and global consultations on refugees and resettlement.
The agency plays an active role in the international resettlement arena and is a regular contributor to the Annual Tripartite Consultations on Resettlement (ATCR). Refugee Services is committed to promoting and sharing resettlement good practice.