Mission and Vision
We are committed to breaking barriers together.
We provide culturally specific services, delivered by a staff that reflects the community it serves by drawing upon their own linguistic, familial, social capital, and lived experience. Our services reflect the values, beliefs, practices, and worldviews of the African immigrants/refugees. We are intentional in our representation of cultural perspectives that inform our programs and that represents the lived experience of families and most CAIRO staff. We continue to work on our mission through co-creating, enhancing, and delivering community-centered programs and services that inform institutions and empower families for our children and youths’ success.
pre-school graduates
years of community service
hours in children & youth supports
community impact partners
What makes us different?
CAIRO has earned its reputation as a trusted and recognized champion of the African refugee and immigrant community and its most vulnerable members by providing the necessary support for stronger families and responsive communities. Through a dedicated and culturally competent team, a wide variety of programs, and a commitment to enhancing the lives of the children, youth and families we serve, CAIRO is a force for social change.
Our Mission
It is the mission of the Center for African Immigrants and Refugees Organization (CAIRO) to advocate for and act to increase equity and social justice through programs, services, community organizing and collaborative leadership that create equitable opportunities for African refugees and immigrant children, youth and families to thrive.
We seek to carry out this mission by utilizing the following design and approach in our work in Central Minnesota:
Awareness
Effective telling Our Story to the community, partners and funders, conveying a message that increases the awareness of Our Mission Program
and demonstrate the impact of our services and the value of CAIRO to the community
Partnership
Continuing to develop long-term strategic partnership with key local community partners for the purpose of optimizing the use of existing resources while improving access and quality of social programs and services to CAIRO communities
Impact
Ensuring Our approach contributes to culturally informed institutions, empowered parents and members, as well as successful children and youth
Services
Creating , enhancing and delivering community-centered programs and services across all our programming to meet the current and growing needs of African immigrant an refugee community
Sustainability
Achieving long-term financial stability through unrestricted funding pool, increasing the depth and scope of the CAIRO’s donor base and implementing a new methodology for continuous evaluation of program impacts and sustainability
CAIRO’s expertise lies in our ability to provide services that empower clients to positively transform their lives, which is cultivated by our work with at-risk children, youth and families. We use a two‐generation approach to guide all our services. The two-gen approach encourages our programs staff to serve children, youths and their near-adults together, to harness the family’s full potential and to put the entire family on a path to success. The resiliency of the children and families we serve continues to impress and encourage us.
Our Vision
We envision a more just and equitable society in which children, youth, and families live in sustained, supportive communities, which reinforce the cultural wealth and lived experience of the family.
Community Driven
Our Services are informed by and with the voice of the community in mind. We will be flexible with our delivery and responsive to our changing community demands and issues.
Unbreakable Resilience
We draw upon our individual, and collective competencies to cope with, adapt to, and develop from the demands, challenges and changes encountered in our past and current lives.
Cultural Wealth
We have a grounded confidence in Our ability to inform through cultural wealth and lived experiences. We promote the preservation of our own cultural identity cognizant of the diversity in the society within which we operate and live in
Collective Responsibility
We believe that the CAIRO causes and the issues we address should be held by the whole, not just our staff or community members. Our Advocacy and service delivery is firmly rooted in our belief that it takes a village to raise the child
Cultural Wealth
We have a grounded confidence in Our ability to inform through cultural wealth and lived experiences. We promote the preservation of our own cultural identity cognizant of the diversity in the society within which we operate and live in