Blessing Ceremony
On April 11, 2023, CERI officially opened the doors at our new office on Grand Ave in Oakland. We marked the occasion with a blessing ceremony and delicious cultural foods, bringing our 70+ community members, board, and staff to celebrate this important milestone for the agency. We started our work at CERI in 2006 with a psychologist, one interpreter, one case manager, one intern, and a volunteer psychiatrist who supported approximately 100 survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide. Through healing with the Cambodian community, we developed our CERI model that now reaches twelve hundred clients per year across generations from diverse refugee and immigrant communities.
While we will miss our old office space, this new home is an incredible gift and affirmation that, despite oppressive conditions, our communities will not only survive, but thrive when we do this work together in partnership with our funders, donors, supporters, volunteers, staff, board and community members. We would love to have you visit us at our new office space and join us in promoting mental health and wellness among refugee and immigrant communities, because this work needs all of us!
Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants
Donate now!www.cerieastbay.org
(510) 684-7386
Community Engagement and Development Director: Mona Afary
Mission
Our mission is to improve the social, emotional, psychological, economic, and physical health of refugees and immigrants
Begin to Build a Relationship
We know you care about where your money goes and how it is used. Connect with this organization’s leadership in order to begin to build this important relationship. Your email will be sent directly to this organization’s Director of Development and/or Executive Director.
As CERI’s Community Programs Coordinator, I work with elders in weekly support groups, community service projects, and cultural field trips. CERI has been a healing place for me, as a survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide, and years in refugee camps. Through helping to provide healing to the community, I have largely healed myself.
Uplifting Underprivileged Refugee Youth
Recognizing that trauma, suffered by adult refugees and immigrants who have lived through genocide and resettlement, is often passed down through generations, CERI developed a comprehensive array of youth programming.
The nonprofit’s programming has ended the cycle of trauma for countless refugee and immigrant youths in the East Bay, and across generations, through its innovative and holistic approaches to healing.
You can support CERI’s work to heal generational trauma in many ways:
–$100: supplies CERI’s youth after-school program with three volunteer tutors, and snacks for afternoon programming for one month.
–$500: provides for two outdoor experiences for CERI’s Youth Green Jobs program.
– $1,000: provides two months of trauma-informed weekly group therapy for survivors of trauma and violence.
–$5,000: helps provide for case management and mental health provision for the Afghan refugee community, and funds utility and food subsidies.
Key Supporters
The William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation
Alameda County Behavioral Health
Care Services
New Breath Foundation
Rippleworks
Magic Cabinet
Devata Giving Circle
Kaiser Permanente
Korean Community Center
of the East Bay
Asian Health Services
Archstone Foundation
Asian Law Caucus
Sierra Foundation
Golden Gate National Parks
Conservancy
California Arts Council