About Us:

The Refugee Partnership of Western New York is a collaborative project envisioned by Buffalo’s five agencies that serve refugees and immigrants – Catholic Charities of Buffalo, International Institute of Buffalo, Jericho Road Community Health Center, Jewish Family Services of WNY, and Journey’s End Refugee Services. 

The sudden evacuation of over 77,000 Afghans to the United States under the humanitarian parole program in August 2021 posed an unprecedented challenge to refugee resettlement agencies across the country. In Western New York, the five organizations pooled their resources to form the Buffalo United for Afghan Evacuees (BUFAE) campaign to respond to the crisis and welcome 582 Afghan men, women, and children.  

The Refugee Partnership is the logical outcome of our successful BUFAE campaign. While the refugee resettlement agencies and Jericho Road have a long history of partnering on specific programs and advocacy issues, the Afghan evacuee crisis was the catalyst for formalizing and expanding our collective work in serving refugees and other immigrant communities in Western New York.

The framework of The Refugee Partnership is rooted in our belief that our community thrives when we collaborate with each other, our community partners, and those we serve to provide quality services and build sustainable systems that support, integrate, and attract refugees and immigrants.