Los Angeles Refugee and Immigrant Well-Being Initiative

Immigrant and refugee support

City of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a citywide benefit) County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

Applying a proven solution to a new issue or sector (using an existing model, tool, resource, strategy, etc. for a new purpose)

Refugees in Los Angeles face a unique set of challenges. Frequently addressed are access to medical care, food, housing, and professional development. An often under resourced aspect of refugee care is addressing trauma, and rebuilding the internal capacity for wholeness and well-being in a new life.
In addition to the challenges for those seeking refuge in Los Angeles, individuals who work most closely with them experience a high level of stress and burnout due to the immense needs of the population they serve.
In order to provide a sustainable capacity to thrive and rebuild, the devastating impacts of trauma, religious, political, sexual, or another, must be addressed. Refugees need tools to regulate the nervous system and release trauma. These are the cornerstones of restoring the capacity to move forward with joy and sovereignty.
In addition to providing tangible resources, it is imperative that Los Angeles provide tools that build resilience, agency, belonging, and community.

Kala Wellness will utilize this grant funding to create a unique set of resources to be made available and distributed through refugee and immigrant support centers, organizations working directly with refugees, and through the Los Angeles Public Library system.
Resources will include a series of videos created to support these populations in multiple languages, including Arabic, Spanish, English, Farsi, and Ukrainian. As needed, additional languages may be included.
These videos will teach simple breath and movement techniques, as well as will explain the impacts of trauma and how to utilize the techniques to overcome it, fostering an opportunity for self awareness and reframing of each individual’s situation.
In addition to these digital resources, we will produce pocket sized cards in corresponding languages, reinforcing the wellbeing tools distributed in the videos.
By utilizing breath, spinal alignment, movement, and self-understanding, we will directly support refugees. Kala Wellness will create an additional set of videos specifically designed to support those who work closely with refugees and immigrants, providing wellness tools that may be utilized for an extended time to build resilience, agency, and wholeness.
Other potential aspects of this project include in-person activations, community wellness days, and other live, in-person opportunities to bring these resources to life for the goal of reaching as many Los Angeles refugees and immigrants as possible.

Los Angeles County is currently home to up to 3.5 million refugees and immigrants, making up 35% of our population. By giving over a third of our community the necessary tools for healing, recovery, and thriving, our refugee and immigrant population will have access to becoming an integral part of the vibrant life force of our city. We are only as strong as our most vulnerable population. By supporting and transforming the well-being of our refugee and immigrant population, we lift the entire community of greater Los Angeles up.
Los Angeles will become more richly diverse and stronger as a community and an economy. When we give support to those in the greatest need, they are able to rebuild and infuse their wisdom, insights, and experiences back into the larger community.
We at Kala Wellness have seen first hand how impactful our overseas work with refugees through the United Nations has been, and we are eager to be able to share these insights with communities in need here at home.