Newcomer Advocacy Through one-on-one support and community-led workshops, we equip clients with knowledge of their rights and tools to advocate for themselves in areas like housing, public benefits, employment, mental health, and legal services. Our workshops—shaped by the lived experiences of the communities we serve—build practical skills and civic engagement, helping clients access services, interact with local government, and take action for their communities.
A core part of our programming focuses on legal rights education and deportation risk reduction. We host Know Your Rights (KYR) workshops in Dari, Pashto, Tigrinya, and Amharic for Afghan, Eritrean, and Ethiopian communities—filling a major gap in resources that are widely available in Spanish but scarce in these languages in the Bay Area. These workshops provide vital legal information about interactions with ICE, constitutional protections, and where to access legal help. We offer both virtual and in-person sessions, including weekly KYR workshops at an Eritrean and Ethiopian senior center in North Oakland—serving a highly underserved and often overlooked community. To further reduce risk, we’ve also launched one-on-one support to help community members switch USCIS appointments from in-person to virtual, protecting newcomers from unnecessary exposure to ICE activity.
Systems Advocacy BRFN is committed to building power within immigrant communities by centering community voices in local policy, reforming inequitable systems, and advancing community-led solutions that create lasting change.
We actively participate in policy and advocacy spaces, serving on the Alameda County MHSA Prevention Matters Collaborative to advance mental health policies that better serve Underserved Ethnic and Language Populations (UELP). We're also proud members of the East Bay Refugee and Immigrant Forum (EBRIF)—a coalition of refugee service providers—and Switchboard’s Community of Practice for ECBO Leaders, where we connect with peers nationwide to strengthen immigrant and refugee-led organizations. By investing in immigrant leadership at every level, we are helping to build more representative, resilient, and self-determined communities.
If you are a community member in need of help, please visit our Get Help page. If you’d like to support our work advocating for newcomers, please consider volunteering, donating in-kind supplies, or making a financial contribution.
