Refugee Services Executive Summary

Refugee Services of Texas Austin (RST) is a not-for-profit social services agency that provides services to newly arrived refugees, asylees, parolees, survivors of human trafficking and any other expatriate escaping persecution appertaining to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, and/or political opinion. Since its initiation in 2003 in Austin, TX, RST has provided resettlement services to over 15,000 refugees. RST is funded by both state and national partners and includes former refugees on its staff, who collectively speak over 16 languages appropriate for this program. The agency allies with organizations in the local community, public and private groups, as well as faith-based entities to augment and strengthen
Once they are granted refugee status and transported to the U.S., refugees heavily rely on services such as RST to support them as they acclimate to their new life in the U.S. RST seeks to supports its clients by attaining access to health care and other health services, federal and state supplemental support programs, and empower them to access these in the future through cultural adjustment workshops and support groups. While RST Austin provides many amenities and resources to its clients, there are a number of gaps in services in regards to translations, transportation and child
Cultural competence is integral to the organization’s mission to serve all refugee groups who come into their service. RST ensures that their staff is able to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services to its clients. In order to service and fully engage such a diverse group of clients culturally, RST earnestly employs former refugees and women at the agency. Language skills among staff are also a highly recruited attribute and are a major priority for RST when servicing clients. In-house, RST Austin office has the linguistic capability for 16 languages: Arabic, Burmese, Chin, French, Hindi, Italian, Karen, Kurdish, Maithili, Nepali, Portuguese, Shan, Spanish, Swahili, Tedim, and Twi. In the event that a client speaks a language that is not offered at RST, contracted interpreters and trained volunteers are also a viable option. All staff members, volunteers and contract interpreters obtain ongoing cultural proficiency skills