Department of State Offers Grant for Cultural Orientation Technical Assistance to Strengthen Refugee Program Linkages

The CO Technical Assistance program must be prepared to support both the overseas and the domestic delivery of Cultural Orientation. With that in mind, the Bureau has established the following CO Technical Assistance Program objectives and activities for 2024 (Year One):
1. To strengthen linkages between overseas CO programs and domestic R&P and WC activities
a. Develop, maintain, and update content on a CO Website and newsletter;
b. Maintain and upgrade refugee-facing digital platforms such as Settle In with the goal of providing cultural orientation material to all refugees regardless of linguistic or cultural literacy ability.
c. Provide technical support to the CO working group and CO leaders;
d. On request, conduct presentations regarding CO at national and/or regional refugee resettlement-related conferences;
e. If requested by the Bureau, provide technical assistance to overseas and/or domestic CO programs regarding the evaluation of CO program activities, and the assessment of student learning and understanding, as appropriate;
f. Facilitate both in-person and virtual overseas and domestic CO trainer exchanges;
g. If requested by the Bureau, provide coordination and/or facilitation of special forums or workshops such as a domestic and overseas CO coordinators conference.
h. If requested by the Bureau, coordinate a trip for the CORE Director, the PRM CO Program Officer and the PRM Overseas CO Focal Point Officer to an RSC to monitor and evaluate a particular Cultural Orienta