Opening Doors Year in Review

 

2011 has truly been a milestone year.  Opening Doors would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all of you who donated your time and effort as volunteers and mentors, who provided tax-deductible monetary contributions, and who donated much-needed goods and supplies for our refugee and survivors of human trafficking clients.  Your efforts changed lives.  With your continued support, we can make 2012 even better than 2011!

 

Here are some highlights of our 2011 accomplishments:

 

We created 22 new jobs in the Sacramento area by assisting 25 refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs to start or expand small business.  One hundred nineteen micro-entrepreneurs better understand how to effectively operate a small business due to their business training and technical assistance from Opening Doors.

 

We launched the very successful MoneyWork$ program through which:

  • 41 low income people increased their savings;
  • 26 low income people reduced their debt;
  • 64 better understood the financial system and were empowered to make better decisions for their own and their families’ financial futures.

The program will serve even higher numbers in 2012.

 

We helped 46 victims of human trafficking to escape their trafficking situation, find safe housing, locate counseling, be treated for physical injuries or illnesses, locate legal assistance and address other issues as they reestablished themselves in the Sacramento area. We educated approximately 1200 community members in the subtleties of human trafficking so they will be better able to recognize and report trafficking situations.

 

We launched the Immigration Legal Services Program to assist immigrant victims of crime who need assistance in order to stay free of their abusers and/or traffickers. In addition, we assist United States Citizens and Legal Permanent Residents to petition for family members abroad. We provided legal assistance to 55 immigrants since the program opened in July 2011.

 

We assisted 70 refugees to find safe homes in our community and to begin successful new lives here.  We also survived a very difficult period in the world of refugee resettlement as new layers of security checks abroad kept refugees from arriving for many months and greatly reduced our funding.

 

Through our REAP program 41 refugees and human trafficking survivors increased their English language skills and learned job-hunting skills such as resume writing and interviewing.  We undertook a major expansion of the program to make it more welcoming to women and to include a much-needed health education component.

 

In partnership with the University of California, Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center and the Mesopotamia Association, we began a community-based participatory research project to better understand the health needs and concerns of our area’s growing Iraqi refugee community.

 

We began a major expansion of our microenterprise and microloan program, which you will hear more about in the coming year.

 

We pushed our wildly-successful internship program to new levels.  Sixty-four interns (including undergrads, masters, and PhD students, law students, and graduates of bachelors and masters' programs) donated 350 hours each, learning new skills, gaining resume-building work experience and enabling Opening Doors to do its important work.

 

Seventy-eight Opening Doors volunteers made a critical difference in the lives of refugees, trafficking victims, and other low-income area residents.

 

We completely upgraded our agency communications.  We revamped our website, gained 152 followers on Facebook and 113 on Twitter.

 

We continued to increase our fundraising through individual donations.  Our year-to-date amount as of November 30th, prior to our important end-of-year fundraising efforts, was 72% higher than 2009’s year total.

 

We managed to accomplish all this with an extremely dedicated staff of 7 fulltime, 6 part-time workers, and many wonderful volunteers and supporters from our community.  Thanks to all of you who have been a part of our team.  Together we will continue to help underserved community members have safer, happier, and more prosperous lives.