Most of the people who work at FIRM came to the United States as refugees or immigrants themselves. More than half of our board comes from the communities we serve. Nothing we do costs you anything.
Fresno Immigrant and Refugee Ministries. Welcoming New Americans to the Central Valley since 1994. 1940 N Fresno Street, Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.
Everything at FIRM is free. You can walk in without an appointment, and someone here speaks your language.
1940 N Fresno Street, Fresno, CA 93703. See it on the map
intake@firminc.org, or ask for a housing counselor when you call
Say which language you need when you call, and we will find the person who speaks it. FIRM's workshops are written and taught in the languages families are most comfortable speaking, not translated into them afterwards.
Worknesh Yadete arrived in Fresno alone with three young children, no family here and no car, riding the bus to every appointment. FIRM's Refugee Success Program helped her find housing, introduced her to a community health worker and gave her a bed in the African Community Garden. She bought her first car and learned to drive it.
Today she is a Community Outreach Worker at FIRM. She takes English classes in her free time and volunteers at her Ethiopian church.
This big step forward for my family and me would not be possible without the support and kindness I received from FIRM.Worknesh Yadete, FIRM Community Outreach Worker
She came as a summer intern, worked here from 2011 to 2014, and has been Executive Director since March 2020. FIRM's founder, Rev. Dr. Sharon Stanley, started it in 1994 as a partnership between refugee-led congregations and their neighbors; the main hall carries her name.
FIRM loved me into being.
Christine Barker, Executive Director
Five programs share one building, one front desk and one phone number. You do not have to know which one you need before you call.
FIRM meets the plane. Then come the apartment, the school enrollment, the first appointments and the long list of things nobody explains to you. FIRM has resettled 523 people with the Ethiopian Community Development Council over the past two years.
At the airport, I was welcomed by FIRM. FIRM became my guide and support.
Abdul Wajid Yaqubi, who arrived as a newcomer and now teaches FIRM's English classes.
School enrollment, benefits applications, interpreting, and monthly workshops built with families rather than for them. In 2025 those workshops turned into cooking and sewing classes, concerts and meet-ups; 28 women came to the women's group across 19 sessions.
English classes, help finding work, and a small-business program. In 2025, 39 students sat 66 class sessions, 29 people started jobs, 19 joined the entrepreneurship program, six earned California food licenses and three opened their own businesses.
FIRM's community health workers made 7,000 appointments in 2025, and the clinic FIRM runs with UCSF Fresno saw 198 people in the same year. More than a thousand Hmong and Laotian residents have been signed up for Medi-Cal here.
Five community gardens across Fresno and Clovis, Hmong and Lao radio and television that was listened to 153,090 times in 2025, 5,594 people through FIRM's events, and the advocacy that put forty neighbors on the Capitol steps and a bus stop outside a clinic where Afghan families had been walking to their appointments.
FIRM has a HUD-certified housing counselor. It is free, it is for tenants and for landlords, and in 2025 it helped 241 households in the Valley. Bring the notice, the lease, or whatever came in the mail. If English is not the language you read letters in, say so and we will read it with you.
Housing counseling is offered in English, Hmong, Lao, Khmer, Ukrainian, Russian, Dari, Pashto and Arabic.
FIRM is an approved housing counseling agency of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
I liked how they have humane help for people with different languages and cultures. You can see the love and kindness of these people.Maribel Reynoso Leyva, a pastor, in a Google review
This place is amazing, they help the community so much and are so respectful, great support and lovely playground.Isabel Vasquez, Google review
1940 N Fresno Street
Fresno, California 93703
No appointment, no paperwork and no charge to ask a question. If you are helping a neighbor, bring them with you; if they cannot travel, call and say so.
