New Hampshire to dedicate funds to help resettle up to 400 Ukrainian refugees

By: Ethan DeWitt - May 31, 2023 5:36 pm

A person from Ukraine holds their Ukrainian passport before being allowed to cross the San Ysidro Port of Entry into the United States to seek asylum on March 22, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico. (Mario Tama | Getty Images)

New Hampshire will devote more than $500,000 in federal funds to help resettle up to 400 Ukrainian refugees in the state over the next three years, after an Executive Council vote Wednesday.

The council approved contracts with two organizations – the International Institute of New England and Building Community in New Hampshire – which will provide services to match refugees with housing, health care, and job opportunities.

The contracts will help serve between 200 and 400 refugees in total, including the 175 that had arrived in the state as of November, according to a written explanation by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The two agencies will offer services to help Ukrainians complete resumes and schedule interviews for jobs, enroll children in New Hampshire schools and day cares, and connect to American sponsors who can provide housing. The agencies will help sign up residents for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), fuel assistance, and Head Start, an early childhood development program.

About 1,000 New Hampshire residents have applied to be sponsors, Department of Health and Human Services officials said Wednesday.

The latest round of funding is coming out of an allocation to the state from the U.S. Administration for Children and Families’ Refugee Support Services, which awarded grants to New Hampshire in August and November 2022 to assist with refugees.

As of March 2023, the U.S. had resettled about 270,000 refugees displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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Ethan DeWitt

Ethan DeWitt is the New Hampshire Bulletin’s education reporter. Previously, he worked as the New Hampshire State House reporter for the Concord Monitor, covering the state, the Legislature, and the New Hampshire presidential primary. A Westmoreland native, Ethan started his career as the politics and health care reporter at the Keene Sentinel. Email: [email protected]