Services for New Americans

Lutheran Social Services (LSS) is one of the largest social service organizations in New England. We combine personalized, compassionate care with extremely high standards of clinical sophistication and operational excellence to deliver a broad variety of services to children, youth and families; persons with developmental disabilities, mental illness and Deafness; the economically disadvantaged; refugees and older adults. In keeping with our mission, we serve and care for people in need, regardless of religious affiliation.

Our Services for New Americans continues the Lutheran tradition of caring for the strangers among us. We are one of a national network of only 12 voluntary organizations working in partnership with the U.S. Department of State and the UNHCR (UN High Commissioner for Refugees) to resettle refugees, people who are fleeing persecution in their countries and who have been carefully screened and approved for entrance in the United States. Our professional staff provides refugees with the basic services needed to enable them to achieve economic self-sufficiency in their new homeland.

Located in Hartford, Conn., Wellesley, West Springfield and Worcester, Mass., and Concord, N.H., these programs include a wide range of resettlement services. In West Springfield and Concord, LSS collaborates with Episcopal Migration Ministries to serve the refugee population. In Massachusetts, LSS administers the only program in New England to serve refugee children.

THE LSS PHILOSOPHY FOR SERVING NEW AMERICANS

Lutheran Social Service of New England identifies refugees as among the earth’s needy populations and affirms our call to welcome and offer aid to the stranger in our midst by providing new Americans with the resources they need to adjust to their new culture and become self-sufficient and productive citizens.

LSS serves refugees with compassion and respect for the dignity of each, regardless of culture, race, religion, or national origin, seeking to safeguard human rights and assure fair treatment and equal opportunity.

LSS advocates for the needs of refugees and informs and educates the public concerning the plight and vulnerability of uprooted and displaced persons.

LSS assists refugees to gain knowledge and understanding of their new culture and to become economically self-sufficient, fully participating members of their new communities and homeland.