Entry 01 // Hello & Welcome! Meet Katie, IWRC’s Founder.
IWRC is a space of support and community for refugee and immigrant women. Our focus is on: Adult Basic Education, Health Literacy, Workforce Preparation, Family Literacy, and Community Building. We also provide personalized support services as needed. This safe space is important for women, to both receive and to share tools for momentum, success, and joy.
We are based in Los Angeles and we host many in-person community building events. However, all of our educational programming is presented in a hybrid manner. Our classes, workshops, and one-on-one sessions can be attended in-person, synchronously streamed online, or watched online at a later date. This hybrid approach relieves issues of transportation, childcare, work scheduling, accessibility and more. Our aim is to present programming that is nimble and responsive to the lives of our participants, volunteers, and staff - in order to best serve one another.
Meet the Founder!
I would also like to introduce myself. My name is Katie Callahan Neginskiy and I am the founder of the International Women’s Resource Center. I have worked in adult education and refugee resettlement for 15 years, in multiple countries. I wanted to create an organization that complimented existing resettlement programs, immigrant oriented nonprofits, and adult education systems - while focusing on building community within women and across cultures.
I grew up in rural North Carolina. I had two parents who worked in Oncology, but spent long hours working outside of their job description to ensure that their patients had secure housing, healthy food, access to emotional support, and opportunities for joy. They understood that their work in healthcare did not exist in a vacuum, and they needed to serve the whole patient.
This ethos stuck with me as I began my career in adult education and refugee education. My students could not learn if they were concerned about issues regarding housing, healthcare, justice, and safety. After my own experience with Breast Cancer, I decided it was time to begin this organization in hopes of bringing together women to support each other and help each other navigate systems, so they can experience additional success in the United States and more joy.
I invite you to learn more about our organization on our website or Instagram (@internationalwomenscenter). There you will find more information about how to become a volunteer, a participant or both!
