Cultural Orientation and Community Integration

Adjusting to life in a new country can be disorienting, confusing, and frustrating. To smooth the transition, every resettlement agency (including GGIC) provides cultural orientation sessions for newly arrived refugees.

Through a series of interactive workshops—offered in families’ native languages or with trained interpreters—refugees learn about public transportation, US laws, school enrollment, healthcare access, financial literacy, employment expectations, and community resources. Refugees ask questions, share experiences, and converse with other newcomers and local volunteers. In these classes, practical knowledge—such as the rhythm of a US phone number (all single digits, read three, three, four) or the order of numbers in a US date (month, day, year)—meets human connection.

Beyond the information, these sessions provide something more valuable: community. Parents find out where to take their children for vaccines. Teens learn how to join local youth programs. Mothers connect with neighborhood groups. And every participant leaves better informed, with deeper roots in a wider web of support.

Son muy útiles ya que nos enseña sobre temas que desconocemos y nos prepara para temas que necesitaremos en el día a día.

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[The sessions] are very useful, as they teach us about topics we are unfamiliar with, and they prepare us for things we will need in our day-to-day lives.

Cada semana GGIC continua asesorandonos, mediante sesiones de orientación cultural, dónde continuamos nuestro proceso de formación y adaptación para poder vivir cívicamente en ésta comunidad. Es un apoyo invaluable para nuestra familia.

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Every week GGIC continues to to advise us through cultural orientation sessions where we continue our process of growth and adaptation to live civilly en this community. It is an invaluable support for our family.