Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI)

CERI offers a holistic array of culturally-sensitive bilingual services that support the mental health and well-being of refugee and immigrant clients who have multiple layers of complex needs. We integrate traditional services such as clinical mental health counseling and medication management with culturally/spiritually tailored intervention strategies such as a meditation group co-facilitated by a Buddhist monk.

Future Program

Statistics show that Cambodian/American youth are increasingly prone to getting involved with gangs, crime, drugs, teen pregnancy and prostitution (for the girls). They have one of the lowest education attainment rates of any ethnic group in the country.
The multiple traumas of the Cambodian refugees have had an intergenerational impact on their families. These families continue to relive the tragedies. Poor, unemployed and non-English speaking, these survivors have had few experiences for success to pass on to the younger generation.
Services are urgently needed to help steer these young people on to a positive track, help them stay in school and teach them the skills and training to earn a living wage and break the cycle of poverty and violence. We need your support to reach these outcomes.

Our services have brought remarkable healing and empowerment to our clients.
We need your help to maintain our current programs and launch our new youth program. more info

Social Services & Advocacy
Support Groups
Clinical Counseling
Medication Management
Body Work & Homeopathy Clinic

Social Services & Advocacy

At CERI, we build a trusting relationship with each client to meet his or her needs. We offer direct services or link clients to appropriate agencies to help them overcome barriers and issues (housing, legal, citizenship, etc.) that impact their mental and physical health. By building these bonds of trust we increase our clients participation in individual therapy, group therapy and other services.

Support Groups

CERI offers a range of culturally-grounded support groups to its clients that emphasize self-expression, body awareness, and connecting to a peer support network. Currently, the majority of our clients are enrolled in the following weekly/biweekly groups:

Stress Reduction & Meditation Group
Movement group
Yoga and deep relaxation group
Men’s expressive arts group
Women’s self-expression group using visualization and dream work, knitting and sewing, painting, jewelry making and cooking.

Clinical Counseling

Therapy is conducted with the assistance of an interpreter to individual clients, couples and families. Therapy can be either short or long term, depending on the level of need.

Medication Management

For clients who require psycho-tropic medication, the agency offers a monthly psychiatric clinic that offers psychiatric evaluation and medication management on site. Interpreters are available at the monthly clinics.

Body Work & Homeopathy Clinic

Through a partnership with the Hahnemann Clinic, the agency offers a quarterly homeopathic treatment to clients. Client follow up is done by phone with the assistance of the clinical director and an interpreter. Gentle and healing body work is also offered to clients on a weekly basis by a licensed massage therapist. In the future, we would like to expand our program and build relationships with acupuncture/acupressure, chiropractic and physical therapy programs as well.