Our Vision
We envision a city where all immigrants, regardless of their origins or circumstances, have access to the tools and opportunities necessary for economic mobility, social inclusion, and civic participation.
Our Mission
Our mission is to help new immigrants successfully integrate into life in the U.S. by rapidly improving their English language skills, providing wrap-around case management and counseling, and offering workforce development, digital literacy, and community and civic engagement training. These supports and skills ensure that Riverside program participants are best positioned to achieve economic mobility and social inclusion.
Our Name
We have a new name: Riverside Immigrant Services & Empowerment
The name reflects our efforts over the last few years to broaden our services and develop into an immigrant integration center. In addition to immersive English language instruction, we now provide ESL-centered workforce development and digital literacy skills, an expanded set of social service supports, both directly and through referrals to our field partners, and community and civic engagement and training to empower and amplify the voices of our community.
This comprehensive set of programs strategically and effectively addresses the resettlement needs of new immigrants and refugees in New York City.
The logo is a visual representation of both the rising sun and our emblematic Lady Liberty, symbolizing our welcome to new immigrants and the promise of a future filled with opportunity.
Our Staff
Board of Directors
Luana I Alesio, Board Chair
William Bland, Platform Partnerships, Stripe
Jeffrey Correa, Senior Director, International Rescue Committee
Jasmin Chitrakar, Managing Director, Madison International Realty, LLC
Zahreen Ghaznavi, General Counsel, Newsweek
Nisreen Hasib, CEO/Founder, Signoff
Rebecca Honeyman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, SourceCode
Steve Mendelsohn, Non-Profit Business Consultant
Bipasha Ray, Former Foundation Executive
Eduardo Salazar Uribe, Journalist, Editorial Researcher, CNN
Our Community Partners
African Services Committee
Andrew Romay Immigrant Center
Bellevue Hospital Program for Survivors of Torture
B’nai Jeshurun
Catholic Charities – New International Center
Columbia University – Columbia Community Service
Cooper Union Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers
CUNY CLIP
Edith & Carl Marks JCH of Bensonhurst
Emma’s Torch
International Rescue Committee
LaGuardia Community College Workforce Development
Make the Road
New York State Department of Labor
Per Scholas
RDJ Shelter for Refugee and Asylee Men
Rutgers Presbyterian Church
Safe Horizon
Sanctuary for Families
Shorefront YM-YWHA
Streetwise Partners
SUNY Educational Opportunity Centers
Upwardly Global
Workforce 1 Center for foreign-born New Yorkers
Our Results
Established in 1979, Riverside has helped more than 30,000 immigrants from over 80 countries learn English rapidly, thereby accelerating their entry into the American workforce or their pursuit of a higher education.
Riverside has a very sound track record and continues to outperform other programs:
Riverside is in the top 5% of all NY State adult education programs, based on the annual NY State Report Card measuring educational gain, employment, and other achievements.
86% of our students achieve at least one educational gain after their 6-week class program. This compares very favorably to the State benchmark of 51%.
Participants learn in six weeks what it would take them one year to learn in a part-time program.
Gaining English proficiency increases our students’ career opportunities and potential earnings: Studies have shown that gaining English proficiency can increase immigrants’ salaries by as much as 20-40%.*
*Study by Center for Public Democracy and Make the Road NY, April 2016
Our Financials
Riverside financial records are below: