The Office of Newcomer Services is responsible for coordinating, planning, implementing and evaluating Virginia's Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP).
The Refugee Resettlement Program provides support for men, women and children from all parts of the globe who have been forced to flee their homelands because of wars, armed conflicts and/or gross violations of human rights. Virginia's Refugee Resettlement Program mirrors the national program by promoting self-sufficiency, personal responsibility and offering specialized support services and time-limited benefits to assist refugees and their families.
Services and programs provided by the Refugee Resettlement Program include:
- Health screenings
- Social and support services, including employment assistance and English language training
- Financial and medical assistance
- An unaccompanied minors program for refugee children without parents or guardians
- Targeted assistance programs for refugees with particular needs, and
- The Virginia Refugee Student Achievement Project, which is targeted for school aged refugee children in Northern Virginia and metropolitan Richmond.
Since 1975, Virginia has resettled more than 50,000 refugees with assistance from ONS, bringing Virginia's rank to eleventh in the nation for refugee resettlement. Virginia's refugees have historically come from areas including Africa, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Approximately fifty-five percent of refugees relocate in the Northern Virginia area.
Our Staff
Kathy Cooper
Virginia State Refugee Coordinator
Seyoum Berhe
Community Capacity Consultant
Seyoum Berhe is the ONS Community Capacity Consultant. He is responsible for Virginia community Capacity Initiative, Discretionary grants and work flow within ONS. Before joining ONS, he was Director of the Catholic Charities, Migration and Refugee Services, from 2001 to 2015. Prior to that, Mr. Berhe has worked with the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) and the American University in Washington, DC as a director of Research and Records in the Office of Development. Mr. Berhe holds a BA in History and an MS in Education Administration from Niagara University.
Penelope Boyd
Policy Specialist
Penny Boyd is the ONS Policy Specialist. She has responsibility for the Virginia Refugee Program Manual and the VRP State Plan. She is the VDSS liaison with local agencies and resettlement offices on issues related to cash, medical, and employment assistance. She coordinates with other state agencies to ensure refugee have access to the services administered by those agencies. Prior to joining ONS, she worked with the VDSS Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, the Division of Child Support Enforcement, and the Division of Service Programs.
Wendy Shoaf
Program Support Tech
Brent Sutton
Program Operations Specialist
Brent received a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Cincinnati. As an undergraduate, he majored in political science and history. He has spent his entire career in social services. Before coming to the Office of Newcomer Services in 1996 he worked as a program and planning director in aging services and consultant in community planning. He takes great satisfaction in applying his training, experience and skills to “state of the art” public administration of Virginia’s refugee resettlement program.
Funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), the Virginia Refugee Resettlement Program provides a continuum of employment, educational, case management, health and financial support services to newly arrived refugees in the Commonwealth.