Refugee Navigation Services

Refugee Navigation Services connects refugee children and their families with local schools and area resettlement agencies.

From the Refugee Education Center’s earliest days as an organization, a primary tenant has been creating opportunities for more established refugees to share their lived experiences with newly arrived refugees, preparing them to participate in the community successfully.

Welcoming and Supporting Refugees

Whether refugees have recently resettled in the United States or have moved to West Michigan from another part of the country, our Refugee Navigators help refugees feel welcome and supported. Our Navigators have experienced what it’s like to be a new member of the community and serve as necessary support for new students and their families as they enroll and engage in local school systems.

Our Refugee Navigators provide parents and caregivers with school orientation and enrollment guidance and help with parent-teacher conferences. Our Navigators also offer parent-student workshops that educate parents on school services and the importance and benefits of being involved in their child’s education.

Our Navigators support families directly and refer families and individuals to Refugee Education Center programs and services, as well as our partners’ direct service programs and/or other state-funded benefit programs.

About our Refugee Navigators

The Refugee Education Center developed our team to include one or more Navigators of the same ethnic background, birth country, and/or language as our community's primary populations of resettled refugees. Together, our Navigators speak 28 languages. For newly arriving refugees, Navigators are a welcoming, familiar face and are trusted partners and pathfinders in an unfamiliar place.

The Refugee Education Center originally developed our Navigation Services to support Michigan’s contracted work of Family Engagement Services and Student Enrollment Services (via the Student Impact Grant).