Giving Back: Jericho Road Ministries
Thursday, November 17, 2011 at 4:38PM 
By Olivia Butz
Jericho Road Ministries operates in several locations on the West Side of Buffalo, working slowly toward community-wide transformation in the lives of those serving and the lives of those served, seeking to serve with (not to or for) the members of refugee and low-income communities on the way to wholeness. Many of the refugees that have been settled in this area have many assets to offer the community; their stories are often rich, often difficult, yet full of hope. We primarily difficult, yet full of hope. We primarily (though not exclusively) serve refugees during the post-resettlement process; that is, addressing the needs of refugees beyond that of the initial resettlement process, needs that the refugee communities bring to the staff and programs of Jericho Road Ministries. The initial resettlement process lasts for three to six months, and provides refugees with the most basic of needs: housing, job placement, application for basic medical and other public benefits, etc.
We also provide services beyond the immediate necessities of the refugees that are resettled to Buffalo. Acclimation to the United States’ systems of health care, education, and finances; the difficult process of learning English as a second language; and dealing with issues of trauma, isolation, and separation make the services we offer just as necessary and important as those of the initial resettlement phase. Jericho Road Ministries aids refugees in ‘placing’ themselves within their new American context and relationships.
The organization was founded in 2003 in response to the broad range of continuing needs seen in refugee patients filtering in and out of Jericho Road Family Practice. We serve a number of diverse health, education, and economic needs, running with three branches and eleven programs that seek to empower refugees to embrace self-sufficiency and to become committed to their ethnic communities, neighbors, and more broadly, the city of Buffalo. In fact, a growing number of Jericho Road’s staff members are members of the communities in which they serve, serving as caseworkers, class instructors, doulas, and translators, among other roles!
We are also a para-church organization; that is, we do not function as a church but we are grounded in and motivated by our overarching faith commitment to partner with Jesus in God’s restorative work on earth.!
