In 2023, it became clear that philanthropic and voluntary support was needed to supplement government’s efforts to respond to the increased pace of asylum seekers coming to New York City. In March 2024, about 65,000 people were in city shelters and seeking asylum, and over 182,000 immigrants had come through the city’s shelter system since the spring of 2022. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers are enmeshed in immigration court, as the immigration system copes with an unprecedented backlog of more than 322,000 cases. The accelerated pace of new cases has delayed cases and dispositions and placed a significant strain on immigration lawyers. The last time New York City welcomed this many immigrants was in the early 1990s when an average of 113,000 people were coming to the five boroughs each year.

Revson invested in the following organizations to better support newcomers to the city:

• Brooklyn Public Library (BPL). Revson invested funding to restore and expand BPL’s New Americans Navigation initiative. The program was cut from the city budget in 2023, just as libraries saw a surge in demand for services among new immigrants. The New Americans Navigation project will turn 61 library branches, trusted public spaces, into welcoming resource hubs for new immigrants. Library branches are identifiable and accessible public spaces in every neighborhood where immigrants are already going for basic resources like computers and internet access. The New Americans Navigation initiative will be essential to a better coordinated and more effective approach to integrating New York City’s new immigrants. They will offer resource fairs and legal assistance clinics in partnership with legal service providers, screen interested patrons for eligibility for immigration relief, and provide individualized assistance toward legal, health care, career/employment, education, and social services.

• Documented. Revson continues its support for the nonprofit newsroom, Documented, which fills an important gap in the local news field. Their local reporting is dedicated to covering immigrant communities and the policies that affect them. Since Revson’s initial support of Documented in 2019, the nonprofit newsroom has significantly expanded, increased its reporting, grown its audience, and more frequently impacted policy and public discourse. At the end of 2024, Documented launched a partnership with the International Rescue Committee to distribute its explainers and drastically expand their interactions with immigrants to at least 100,000.  

• Immigrant Advocates Response Collaborative (I-ARC). We provided general support to I-ARC, a membership organization of 80 immigration legal service providers. I-ARC also serves as an immigration law training and policy institute and has been on the frontline of coordinating the legal services community to assist asylum seekers. At a time when the immigration legal services field is overburdened, I-ARC is strengthening the sector by testing and promoting new and efficient models of service for immigrants with or without legal representation. They are finding ways to bridge the gap in legal resources and empower immigrants, lawyers, and organizations to navigate the complexities of immigration law effectively. 

• Interfaith Center of New York. Revson awarded a muti-year grant to the Interfaith Center, which convenes a coalition of 67 diverse houses of worship and faith-based groups as they welcome and serve asylum seekers in New York. Since the first buses of asylum seekers arrived in NYC, diverse houses of worship have welcomed the newest New Yorkers with respite, food, workforce development, English classes, legal guidance, and more. Asylum seekers have sought support from faith-based groups because of their trusted and accessible role in the community. Though under-resourced, these groups fill important service gaps left by government. The Coalition also coordinates with city officials on the government’s response. With Revson’s support, the Coalition was able to hire a full-time associate director for migrant outreach and will double the number of participating houses of worship participating in the Coalition. The Coalition currently serves around 14,000 asylum seekers annually with legal support, food, respite, clothing donations, and more. In FY 25, they expect to positively impact the experiences of around 28,000 asylum seekers.

• National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH). Revson provided seed funding of NASH’s partnership with the State University of New York, called Setting up for Success (SUFS). SUFS is founded on a cross-sector coalition including NASH, the SUNY Research Foundation, the SUNY Institute on Immigrant Integration, and Every Campus a Refugee (ECAR). Leveraging the catalytic role of higher education and the infrastructure of SUNY and CUNY, SUFS will harness the economic potential of eligible immigrants in New York State by preparing them for careers that fill workforce gaps and by providing them with new opportunities.

Follow in-depth coverage of newcomers to New York City and the government’s response in Documented and THE CITY.

Photo credit: Stacy Walsh Rosenstock via Alamy