WES Blog

The IMPRINT Coalition launched in 2011 with five members and an ambitious goal: to advance policies and promising models that support the economic inclusion of internationally trained immigrants and refugees. A decade later, IMPRINT is nearly 30 members strong and includes service providers, advocacy organizations, and higher education institutions from across the United States. All […]

Over the past 10 months, resettlement agencies in the United States have welcomed more than 76,000 Afghan refugees as part of Operation Allies Welcome. As they settle into their new communities and  lives here in the U.S., there is a need to ensure their longer-term social and economic inclusion. Refugees need more than a roof […]

In May of 2022, the number of people forced to flee conflict, violence, human rights violations, and persecution surpassed 100 million for the first time. Approximately 40% of these individuals are refugees. Data from the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) shows that in 2020 around half of refugees worldwide were under the age […]

The 12.3 million immigrant and refugee women in the United States workforce represent 15 percent of all women employed in food and agriculture, health care and public health, education, and manufacturing. Yet even with increasing demand for workers in these critical sectors, systemic barriers have continued to limit equitable workforce opportunity. Of all workers, immigrant […]

In 2020, Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia (ISANS) approached the WES Mariam Assefa Fund with a project idea to help internationally educated early childhood educators (ECEs) and primary school teachers better access jobs as ECEs in the province. ECEs are trained to support the social, emotional, and physical development of children under the age […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented pressures on health systems globally: the WHO is estimating a projected shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030. Health authorities in Canada are anticipating a continuation of serious shortages of health care professionals in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and respiratory therapy, to name just a few.  Public concern […]

Immigrants and refugees in the United States have high levels of post-secondary education, sought-after multilingual skills, and experience in high-demand STEM sectors, including health care—yet at least two million are unemployed or underemployed. A significant barrier to accessing employment opportunities is linked to the prevalence of networking in the U.S., and the fact that immigrants […]

Although youth (ages 17-30) in Canada make up only 12 percent of the nation’s labour force, in the early days of the pandemic they accounted for a quarter of the country’s job losses. With immigrant youth already facing other barriers to employment, World Education Services (WES) and the Canadian Council for Youth Prosperity (CCYP) have […]

This blog post was created by Katheryn DeWitt of Common Future and originally published on Medium.  Foundations in the United States hold over $1 trillion in assets — 93 percent of which is invested in Wall Street rather than being used for the common good. What’s worse, decisions about the allocation of these assets are regularly […]

Over the past decade, more than 300,000 new students have been added to Virginia’s K-12 schools. However, during that same period, only 3,000 new employees were hired. The number of unfilled teaching positions across the commonwealth jumped 62 percent in just two years, from the school year 2018-2019 to 2020-2021. Last August, 76 of Virginia’s […]

This blog post was created and originally published by SOCAP. Employee ownership is a powerful business model that can scale businesses, create higher-quality jobs, and strengthen communities, but limited financing is available to help businesses make this transition. Impact capital can expand democratic employee ownership to build generational wealth, help close the racial wealth gap, […]

As executive co-directors of the Pioneer Valley Workers’ Center (PVWC), Claudia Rosales and Alfonso Neal embody the organization’s mission of harnessing the collective power of immigrant workers. Claudia and Alfonso leverage their personal and professional experiences to lead PVWC, a WES Mariam Assefa Fund grantee partner that launched in 2014 to strengthen and center power […]

Written by the EdTech Center @ World Education, a grantee partner of the WES Mariam Assefa Fund, this blog post explores how the center’s new CrowdED Learning initiative makes more equitable digital learning possible for immigrants and refugees. COVID-19 sparked an urgency for organizations to increase digital access and inclusion as programs shifted to provide […]

Afghan Women’s Organization, Family Services of Peel, Laadliyan, MIAG Centre for Diverse Women and Families, Peel District School Board, and Sikhs Serving Canada Association will receive grants The Tamarack Institute and the WES Mariam Assefa Fund are excited to announce that six organizations have been selected for funding by a People’s Panel through the Building Equitable […]

The WES Mariam Assefa Fund is excited to announce its partnership with Community Credit Lab (CCL). With a $100,000 recoverable grant from the Fund, CCL will pilot and test new financial lending programs with input and direction from local lending partners and communities that know the needs of their communities best. A recoverable grant is […]

Originally published on the Future of Good website, this post was written by Neha Chollangi. The WES Mariam Assefa Fund is partnering with Future of Good on a series of digital stories to highlight the Fund’s first ever participatory grantmaking project. Developed in the Peel region of Ontario, the project is facilitated by the Tamarack […]

World Education Services (WES) believes in the power of storytelling and shared resources. In 2019, we reached out to immigrants across North America. We asked about their reasons for leaving home, their challenges along the way, and the advice they would like to share with other newcomers. In this new blog series, we are now […]

World Education Services (WES) believes in the power of storytelling and shared resources. In 2019, we reached out to immigrants across North America. We asked about their reasons for leaving home, their challenges along the way, and the advice they would like to share with other newcomers. In this new blog series, we are now […]

World Education Services (WES) believes in the power of storytelling and shared resources. In 2019, we reached out to immigrants across North America. We asked about their reasons for leaving home, their challenges along the way, and the advice they would like to share with other newcomers. In this new blog series, we are now […]

The World Education Services (WES) Mariam Assefa Fund today announced a new $1.5 million partnership with Echoing Green to launch a fellowship that supports immigrants and refugees of color in the United States and Canada. Through Echoing Green’s fellowship program, the Racial Equity and Immigrant Justice initiative will support up to 19 leaders, including six […]