CRIW partners with underserved refugee and immigrant women in New Haven who lead our community-driven initiatives that honor self-determination and promote well-being.
WOMEN-LED CHANGE
POWERED BY COMMUNITY
ROOTED IN COLLECTIVE WELL-BEING
Who We Are: CRIW - The Collective for Refugee and Immigrant Women’s Wellbeing is a nonprofit in New Haven founded in 2020. We partner with underserved refugee and immigrant women with limited power due to gender, ethnicity, poverty, education, language, culture and health disparities who drive and guide our programs.
Our Approach: Starts with listening to women.
We build: Relationships and initiatives from strengths, honoring experience and culture and promoting self-agency.
Our Programs: Shift power and fuel systematic change by creating new ways of doing things to solve long-standing challenges by breaking barriers starting at the grassroots level. CRIW’s community-led initiatives and cross-sector partnerships create models of what's possible when those most impacted shape the systems meant to serve them.
We believe: Lasting impact is built through connection. We foster community collaborations rooted in shared goals and mutual support.
We trust in: The transformative power of community as a force for healing, growth and justice.
Our Focus
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Building collective power with preliterate Afghan women through leadership training and civic engagement.
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CRIW leads an onsite, neighborhood-based ESOL and family literacy program created with and for refugee and immigrant mothers and their young children. In partnership with New Haven Adult Education, IRIS, and CRIW volunteers and interns, we offer multi-level English classes plus childcare and preschool readiness support. Designed collaboratively with the community, the program emphasizes practical skills that help families actively and confidently engage in community life. CRIW oversees program quality and coordination, manages student recruitment and retention, and trains and supervises interns and volunteers.
Co-designed with local women, the program offers a welcoming and vibrant space where women are learning, gaining confidence and self-agency, and navigating community resources with increasing ease.
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Using multiple artistic platforms, we reduced barriers to expression and provided preliterate Afghan women who are often unheard, to tell their stories.
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CRIW is committed to collaborating with individuals and organizations to support existing programs, collectively envision and create new, meaningful initiatives and celebrate community.
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Our Initiatives
Our Newest Project: Piloting a Co-Designed Health Equity Initiative for Afghan Refugee and Immigrant Women Living with and/or Caring for a Family Member with a Disability
CRIW is partnering with Yale School of Medicine’s Program for Recovery and Community Health (PRCH) to launch a culturally-responsive, Co-Design project focused on better understanding and addressing the needs, hopes and systemic barriers faced by refugee and immigrant women in the Greater New Haven area who are:
Living with a physical and/or mental disability
Caring for a family member with a disability
Using an equity-led process, CRIW’s two-phase initiative will build self-determination, shift power, and reimagine systems with refugee women at the center. This project will leverage CRIW’s successful experiences in community-led programming and cross-sector partnerships to create a model of what's possible when those most impacted shape the systems meant to serve them. This project will inform future work with diverse underserved communities to reduce disparities and promote well-being.
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New & Noteworthy
December/2024 - “I think about this kind of work as being about creating space for unheard voices to speak, and to share their side of the stories. I feel that there’s kind of a concept of silence that is happening in our society right now, and so this is about more than just art; it’s about making room for these women’s experiences in the world.” — Hangama Amiri, Yale MFA ‘20.
November/2024 - The New HavenIndependent’s Brian Slattery visits CRIW’s exhibit: “Afghan Women Explore Themes of Identity & Home” on display at the Wilson Branch of the New Haven Public Library through December 3, 2024. “"They came so far, and brought so much with them, in their heads, hearts, and hands. Steeped in old ways, they’re creating new ties."
