Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott announced an initiative that connects immigrant and refugee families with short and long-term health and social resources to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts.
The Mayor’s Office started the Baltimore New American Access Coalition (BNAAC), an initiative seeking to minimize the economic and social disparities faced by immigrant and refugee families.
The BNAAC initiative is made possible through an approximately $4 million allocation from the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.
“The City of Baltimore is committed to providing resources to residents critically impacted by the aftermath of COVID-19,” Mayor Scott said. “The BNAAC will ensure that traditionally underserved communities have equitable access to health and human services to help them make ends meet and ensure a higher quality-of-life for immigrant and refugee communities here in Baltimore. In order to be effective, we are using our ARPA funds in tandem with policy and programming to produce coordinated, comprehensive progress.”
During COVID, immigrant and refugee families had fewer resources to sustain themselves financially through the pandemic as many were ineligible for unemployment benefits, the payment protection plan, stimulus checks, and child tax credits — further exacerbating economic disparities within these communities.
Now, immigrant and refugee families continue to face a range of systemic barriers to accessing federal, state, and local health and social services, including program eligibility rules and lack of language access.
In response, the BNAAC establishes a cadre of Benefits Navigators across four (4) community-based organizations (CBO) to help residents with limited English proficiency (LEP) navigate and access health and social resources based on immediate and long-term needs. Partner organizations were selected based on target communities and geography to meet New Americans where they reside.
- Catholic Charities Esperanza Center will support African foreign-born families concentrated in Northeast and foreign-born families citywide
- The International Rescue Committee will support refugee, asylees, and Mandarin/Korean speaking foreign-born families concentrated in Central, Northeast, and West Baltimore
- CASA will support Latino foreign-born families in Northwest and South Baltimore
- Southeast CDC will support Latino foreign-born families in Southeast Baltimore
The BNAAC will incorporate immigration legal services to educate families about their rights to access public programs. These include access to immigration clinics and consultations to dispel any myths and misinformation preventing them from applying to programs.