Few agencies can address all the needs without help. For example, if you are an employment counselor, you may know the employment resources well; but if you think your client may be experiencing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms that are interfering with her progress, you may not know which agencies are skilled in addressing psychological trauma. Or, if you are a therapist skilled at handling trauma issues, you may not know where a Bosnian-speaking refugee can go to get legal assistance.

This directory of agencies is designed to give you a head start in finding resources outside your area of expertise. A refugee who has experienced torture or war trauma is also a person with other needs, unrelated to those experiences. Since we are working with a whole person, we include resources that are useful to traumatized refugees for their various concerns. We did not include all the wonderful services each agency provides, for reasons of brevity and focus. While we tried to use the organization of First Call for Help directories for the sake of clarity and continuity, we sometimes named a resource by the relevant service unit (e.g. Hennepin County Office for Multicultural Services), rather than the parent agency, when it made more sense.

We have used many of the same service categories and subcategories you find in the First Call for Help directory, and on the First Call for Help Web site at: www.firstcallnet.org.

Agencies may be listed under more than one category if they offer more than one kind of service. Not all subcategories were included; for example, an agency offering a “Basic need” service that is not “food,” “housing,” or “transportation,” will just appear under “Basic needs.”

Each agency brief listing by service category includes a summary of its services relevant to refugees. More detailed information on each agency can be found in the alphabetical listing at the end of the handbook. If you have the printed version of the handbook, there is room on each page for you to add your notes. For more exhaustive information and more resources, consult First Call for Help.

Q: How is this different from “First Call for Help”? A: We sorted through the hundreds of agencies to highlight referral resources that have services particularly useful to refugees with trauma experiences.