African Refuge

African Refuge "is a volunteer and community driven center that develops crucial linkages between the African community and social service providers in Staten Island. Through community outreach, information and referral services, family and youth support programs, it identifies and serves basic needs of refugees and immigrants. African Refuge is a program of Refuge, Inc. a New York not for profit sponsored by the International Trauma Studies Program. It ‘s mission is to implement projects that promote the resilience, mental health and social integration of individuals and families in communities that have endured – war, torture, terrorism and forced migration."

African Refuge is a member of the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs.


 * Director - Jacob D. Massaquoi II

Advisory board
Accessed May 2009:


 * Gerald Brumskine - Community Advocate, Staten Island.
 * Ernest B. Cassell - Founding Member, African Refuge, Staten Island, NY
 * Ernesto Castillo - Chilean Community Leader Staten Island
 * Serena Chaudhry - Executive Director, Peace and Justice Center, Burlington, Vermont
 * Janice Cooper - Director, Child Health and Mental Health, National Center for Children in Poverty, Assistant Clinical Professor Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
 * Bobby Digi - CEO Thello Entertainment, President Island Voice, Staten Island, NY
 * Natasha Johnson-Lashley - African Community Liaison, Sanctuary for Families Center for Battered, Women's Legal Services, New York, NY
 * Wilma L. Jones - Associate Professor, Chief Librarian, College of Staten Island Library
 * Eugene Prisco - Educator, Community Leader, Staten Island
 * Eileen Reilly - Director, Workforce Development and Refugee Services, Church Avenue Merchants Block Association, CAMBA, Brooklyn, NY
 * Jack Saul - Assistant Professor of Clinical Population & Family Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, Executive Director, Refuge/International Trauma Studies Program
 * Rev. Philip S. Saywrayne - Mission Developer, African Immigrant Ministry, Staten, Island, NY
 * Nancy Wallace - Faculty, School of Social Work, New York University, NGO Committee on Mental Health
 * Barbara Toy - Development and Public Relations Specialist

Contact

 * Web: http://itspnyc.org/african_refuge/