After 50 years, this Vancouver immigrant services agency is busier than ever

Latino churches like Iglesia Misionera Cristo Vive are acting as social service hubs for parishioners and members of the community, providing food, shelter, English language classes, trauma recovery and immigration advocacy.

Albergue Assabil (the Shelter of the Path), by the Latina Muslim Foundation, is the first women-led Muslim shelter along the U.S.-Mexico border. It has been in operation since June 2022, providing a safe space for women migrants, supplying them with food, clothing, shelter and sanctuary regardless of their religious, social or cultural background. In the past two years, the shelter has helped about 3,000 migrant women.

Fortify Life takes a holistic approach to addressing homelessness and also provides emergency and long-term stays in a renovated motel for people experiencing homelessness. Long-term guests participate in a micropayment program that teaches them how to budget and become financially self-sufficient. Since 2021, Fortify Life has helped 179 families with emergency or transitional housing.

HomeAid builds and renovates affordable housing and shelters for people transitioning out of homelessness and also helps provide housing resources for those aging out of the foster care system. Affordable housing for people aging out of foster care provides them with a stepping stone to self-sufficiency, where they learn responsibilities like paying rent, opening a savings account, and managing their bills.

The Migrant Education Program, which offers educational and social services to migrant worker families in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, is growing in popularity among the valley’s migrant worker population, and has recently begun to focus on getting migrant students geared up for college .

A nonprofit organization, the Internationals Network for Public Schools, delivers a first-class education to the children of illegal immigrants, helping to break the cycle of poverty and provide them a path to advance in life.

When many Latina immigrant women arrive in the United States, they don't have access to the internet to learn about the resources available to them. Únete Latina, a program run by Latinas, sends mobile phone texts to women with supportive messages in Spanish and with information about relevant news items and public services.

The Twilight Education Club is a non-profit working to break down the barriers – transportation, child care and cost – that typically prevent the economically disadvantaged from accessing social services such as language classes. While the Twilight program is specifically geared toward the needs of the parents - getting better jobs and securing greater stability - the long-term focus remains on creating future opportunities for their children.

Clinica Sierra Vista's Health Insurance Assistance Program helps uninsured and underinsured patients, many of them undocumented immigrants, navigate Medi-Cal enrollment and renewal, Covered California marketplace plans and the clinic's own sliding-fee scale program. In 2025, the program assisted 33,680 Kern County residents.

The 2016 exemption to Ventura County's strict farmland protection laws has enabled the development of nearly 700 affordable housing units for farmworkers. These rent-controlled apartments on former agricultural land provide stable housing regardless of immigration status.