NEWS AND UPDATES MARCH 2021
Opening Doors partners with SafeNight app to provide emergency shelter for survivors of human trafficking
Opening Doors is proud to announce we are now an official partner of SafeNight, an app-based alert and donor platform to provide shelter or shelter referral services to survivors of domestic violence or human trafficking.

When a survivor makes the decision to leave an abusive situation, often times support agencies like Opening Doors only have a few hours to locate safe and appropriate shelter.

If shelters are full, finding a safe space to spend the night can often involve multiple phone calls to partner agencies to identify any available bed in the area – and are not always successful.

The SafeNight App exists to break this cycle in two very important ways: [read more...]
50 refugee and immigrant businesses accessed CA COVID Relief Fund with help from Opening Doors
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Opening Doors has partnered with CAMEO, California’s statewide micro-business network dedicated to furthering micro-business development, to assist Sacramento’s refugee- and immigrant-owned small businesses with funds to sustain their small businesses.

The economic impact of COVID-19 affects businesses of all sizes with small businesses being adversely affected; small businesses operating with very tight margins are often less equipped than large corporations to deal with a crisis like the pandemic and are less likely to have enough cash flow to get them through a long-term economic downturn. 

In late 2020, the California Office of Small Business Advocates announced a new set of measures designed to aid small businesses impacted by COVID-19, including the COVID-19 Relief Grant. The goal of this grant is to reach underserved micro and small businesses.

While many business owners can navigate the application process themselves online, refugee- and immigrant-owned small businesses face technology and language/terminology barriers that make it very difficult for them to successfully navigate the complicated application process.

The window to apply for these funds was very short, so CAMEO reached out to Opening Doors to share this opportunity with as many of Sacramento’s refugee- and immigrant-owned small businesses as possible and offer individualized application assistance. [read more...]
Opening Doors appoints Greg Eddy as Chairman of Board of Directors
Opening Doors is pleased to announce the appointment of Greg Eddy as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Eddy joined the Board of Opening Doors in 2017.

Greg Eddy has served as a volunteer with Opening Doors since 2016 as part of his membership with The Table at Central United Methodist Church, a local church with a long history of co-sponsoring refugee families arriving to Sacramento. Before becoming Board Chair in 2021, he served as chair of Opening Doors’ Governance Committee.

“Opening Doors is working diligently to address the difficulties some clients are facing related to the pandemic, and we’re hoping to view these challenges as opportunities to learn more about how to better support clients as their needs evolve,” says Eddy.

“As we move forward, there is real potential for growth — in what services we provide for our clients and in what we can learn from them – that leaves me very optimistic about the impact the organization can have on newcomers’ futures.”
Social Media Spotlight:
Opening Doors' Immigration Legal Services Team finding
new ways to safely serve clients

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