Agency for New Americans celebrated 25 years of service in Idaho in 2021. ANA continues to assist new Americans on their tremendous journey of resettlement here in Boise, ID Evolving political climates, economic challenges, and global events have all had an impact on the story of the Agency. ANA remains relentless in the face of adversity to achieve the mission of improving the educational, social, and economic well-being of new Americans and the communities in which they live. Learn more about the journey of ANA, from the year the agency formed, through the many challenges the Agency has faced, to where we are standing strong today.
|
Mountain State Refugee Resettlement Program (MSRRP) forms as an agreement between Mountain States Group, Episcopal Migration Ministries, & the Episcopal Diocese of Idaho. Lisa Reeves, first program director, and one other team member worked to welcome 25 refugees in the first two years, with clients primarily from Yugoslavia.
|
|
Staff grows from 2 people to 5! Clients served grew immensely from 25 to over 200 clients served. The first Kosovar family resettled to the United States is welcomed into Boise by MSRRP. The Agency begins the Match Grant program.
|
|
MSRRP renames and becomes Agency for New Americans (ANA). Agency moves to 1614 W. Jefferson St. to accommodate the rapid growth of the team and program services. Annual clients received averaged at 150, and staff continues to grow.
|
|
Lisa Reeves steps down as director to move toward other opportunities and is succeeded by Christina Bruce-Bennion. ANA resettles their first clients from outside Europe, Afghanistan and Sudan.
|
2001 |
The events of September 11, 2001, led to lasting changes in the refugee resettlement process. Refugee arrivals were paused throughout much of 2002, resulting in a significant decline, from 153 arrivals in 2001 to just 47 in 2002. Those who were resettled during this period represented a wider range of countries and backgrounds than the agency had previously served, including individuals from Somalia, the Bantu community, Uzbekistan, Colombia, and the Meshketian Turkish community.
|
2003 |
ANA starts the first refugee microenterprise program in Idaho, which evolved to the META program at Mountain States Group and set the foundation for the Economic Opportunity program at Jannus. ANA also began a Women's Employment Program, which resulted in more innovative ways to serve clients' needs.
|
|
Refugee arrivals are back to over 200 for the year for the first time since 2001. Arrivals came from new countries to the Agency: Burma, Bhutan, & Iraq. The economic recession of 2008 resulted in challenges of finding employment and housing for arrivals despite the high levels of professional experience and English capabilities of arrivals.
|
|
Challenges with housing continue to grow, and there is a drop in arrivals. The Agency received a mental health grant that paved new possibilities for connecting with clients.
|
|
The Agency becomes the site for a newly formed "Refugee Corps" volunteer program, made possibly by funding from the mental health grant received in 2014.
|
|
In FY 2016, the Agency received over 200 arrivals from Afghanistan, Bhutan, Congo, Iraq, & Syria. The Agency was also awarded Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) grant from the Idaho Council on Domestic Violence and Victim Assistance (ICDVVA). Women's Program, Men's Classes, and Youth Programming is developed to provide additional resources and education on human rights and trauma responses. The number of arrivals dropped drastically after this year.
|
|
Slobodanka Hodzic takes over as director of the program, after working with the Agency as assistant director since 2001. ANA is awarded Community Health Worker Program funding for assistance with navigating complex health care systems.
|
|
ANA receives funding for our Youth Mentorship Program, REACH, where mentors (local Boiseans) are paired with a mentee (refugee youth) and support the educational and career goals of their mentee, building community partnerships and improved social integration.
|
|
The Covid-19 pandemic hits the agency hard. Doors to the office are closed to the public from March 17, 2020, to July 1, 2020, and the team begins working from home. Arrivals drop due to travel restrictions. Staff continues to work with clients using precautions like masks and meeting outside of the agency. Director Slobodanka Hodzic works to keep the agency doors open.
|
2021 |
The team begins to grow once more, and numbers of arrivals begin to increase again. The crisis in Afghanistan results in a new status of "parolee", shifting the landscape of resettlement in brand new ways. The Agency celebrates a 25-year anniversary, with more growth of staff and of programs on the horizon. The Preferred Communities (PC) program begins at the Agency.
|
2022 |
ANA moved from the “little magic white house”, where operations began in 1996, to the main Jannus building across the street at 1607 W. Jefferson St.
|
2024 |
The U.S. welcomed a record 100,034 refugees, marking the highest number of national arrivals in recent history. ANA proudly resettled 340 individuals from countries including Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Congo, Colombia, Eritrea, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Amid growing needs, ANA expanded its team to 23 full-time and 9 part-time staff. In response to updated labor laws, all Community Advisors (1 FT and 9 PT) transitioned from contractors to formal employees under ANA and Jannus. In September 2024, ANA and all Jannus programs relocated to the W. Elder Street location, uniting operations under one roof.
|
2025 |
On January 20, an executive order halted all refugee arrivals. ANA’s scheduled February arrivals were cancelled, and stop-work orders along with delayed reimbursements created significant challenges for newly arrived clients. As a result of funding reductions and the absence of new arrivals, ANA reduced staffing and consolidated its office space.
On May 12, all EMM affiliates were notified that Episcopal Migration Ministries–Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society (EMM-DFMS) had ended its federal contracts. Consequently, ANA’s Reception and Placement (RP), Matching Grant (MG), and Preferred Communities (PC) programs—funded through EMM—closed on July 31, 2025. |
