Our Mission
Our mission is to work with families and individuals lacking access to basic services and equip them with available resources in the community. This includes access to competency-based education, marketable job skills, and health services geared toward primary care and prevention. Also, our services are intended to empower vulnerable individuals and families of Somali or East African origin, helping them meet their basic needs and ultimately achieve economic self-sufficiency. We will also connect participants to available opportunities, such as full scholarships, to pursue any career choice.
Vision Statement
RSS will be the most innovative social service organization that fosters a compassionate, kind, and integrated community for the people who need our help the most.
Core Values
✔ Customized solution
✔ Hope
✔ Acceptance
✔ Safety
✔ Connected community
Programs
Employment Program (EP)
A self-discovery method will be the foundation of our employment services program. The first step towards making significant decisions in life and at work is self-discovery.A self-discovery method will be the foundation of our employment services program. The first step towards making significant decisions in life and at work is self-discovery.
Community Health Education Program (CHEP)
Rays is committed to educating the community about health issues and the COVID-19 virus. We also connect participants to health community resources.
About Us
Rays Social Services is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization that helps individuals in communities lacking access to community resources such as health care, quality education, and employment. Our services empower communities to live as independently as they can by equipping them with marketable skills and tools to achieve their career and life goals. We provide initial screenings and learning sessions to provide information on various platforms. We connect participants to community resources such as employment, quality education, health care, short-term training, and public assistance benefits.
Rays Social Services is run by a competent and passionate board of directors with combined experience of 30 years in the field of health care and social services. In addition, RSS targets refugees and people with legal immigration status who are facing economic hardships and limited access to decent housing, education, and health care. RSS would like to help families and individuals discover their strengths and become familiar with the services available to them. RSS aims to work with people in need and provide them with customized solutions according to their unique and assessed needs. RSS offers various types of services to create ease and flexibility for our clients.
What we do
We work with individuals in communities lacking access to community resources such as health care, quality education, and employment. The services Rays provides are not limited to training and connecting participants to community resources. It also includes an employment service program that will encourage participants to make career choices. This program will focus on participants’ interests, motivators, competencies, and preferences. This is very essential to providing an important foundation for career planning and job search success. Therefore, our services will help participants develop and demonstrate the skills necessary for employment and lifelong success.
Following are the services that we will provide to program participants:
Eliminating Barriers
Eliminating barriers plays an important role in disparity reduction. Thus, participants that are hard to employ, such as individuals with mental or physical illness, immigrants, or participants dealing with domestic abuse, will be referred to additional resources to overcome barriers.
Committed To Transparency
Our organization is committed to transparency. Thus, we document program activities, progress, and challenges faced by our participants. Our staff will set up goals with the participants, which will be reviewed in a timely manner. This helps our employees learn from what is working and what is not working for the participants.
Community Collaboration
RSS is committed to working with communities from different backgrounds. Rays Social Services was established to provide training and resources to minority communities and immigrant communities. Therefore, our organization stands to work collaboratively, one-to-one and with groups of people affiliated, to address issues affecting the well-being of the community. Our approach will be based on bringing people together, including key individuals and leaders that can bring about change. It is basically to listen and understand the community concerns and where they are coming from. We believe that community development programs will be based on the needs and desires of the community. In addition, we believe that participants with multiple barriers have a right to reach their full potential. Thus, Ray Social Services focuses on working with participants with limited English proficiency and will hire bilingual case managers. We believe that cultural competency allows human service workers to understand clients’ needs, values, beliefs, and attitudes in order to provide more culturally competent interventions, services, and support.
Furthermore, it is crucial to encourage a coordinated and collaborative effort by state and federal entities, businesses, and community- and faith-based organizations. Encouraging these efforts will be very significant in creating pathways to a sustainable and actual reduction in poverty rates. These efforts will increase economic stability, reduce dependency on the government, improve child and family outcomes, and support economic development for the entire community.
Low-income families
Immigrant communities
Individuals with mental health/multiple barriers
Minority communities particularly African Americans
Huge Priority To Those Dealing With Difficulties
Our organization gives huge priority to those dealing with difficulties, disadvantaged communities, individuals with disabilities or mental health issues, and immigrants. Most of the community that we work with are refugees from the Horn of Africa or have fled from the civil war that broke out in Somalia in 1991. Demographic information includes males and females between the ages of 14 and 80.
