National Refugee Leadership and Lived Experience Council Program

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), announces the availability of funds for the National Refugee Leadership and Lived Experience Council (NRLLEC) Program. The NRLLEC is a new program funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) that designs, implements, evaluates, and promotes national-level councils consisting of refugees and other ORR-eligible populations who have resettled into communities throughout the United States within the last five years. The NRLLEC Program will facilitate a National Young Adult Leadership Council comprised of members ages 18 to 24 every year for three years, as well as two additional councils with thematic focus to be determined in consultation with ORR. The NRLLEC Program will design, implement, evaluate, and promote five councils during the three-year project period. The program’s primary goal is to positively impact the lives of council members and their refugee and larger communities by building council members’ capacity to serve as leaders. In addition, ORR recognizes that its engagement with these groups will enhance its ability to gather information from individual members firsthand about their lived experiences integrating into the United States. This will help inform ORR and its recipient network about how to best meet refugee needs through enhancing or changing ORR guidance, programming, and future councils. The NRLLEC Program will foster inclusivity, with council members attuned to the diversity, demographics, needs, and viewpoints of ORR’s eligible population (https://www.acf.hhs.gov/orr/programs/refugees/factsheets). The NRLLEC Program will not seek consensus advice from council members.