East Bay Sanctuary Covenant exists to provide sanctuary -- support, protection, and advocacy -- to low income and indigent refugees and immigrants.
Through our Refugee Rights Program, we provide high quality free or low cost legal immigration assistance. EBSC also works to empower and encourage the civic participation of the refugee and immigrant population and to educate local religious communities and the wider public about circumstances that cause refugees to flee their homelands. In EBSC's education programs we involve refugees and immigrants in telling their own story. The goal of our educational programs is to build mutual understanding and trust among peoples and to motivate the public to support policies that treat refugees and immigrants fairly. We have a small staff and depend heavily on volunteers.
EBSC's work consists of the following programs:
EBSC's origins lie in the Sanctuary Movement of the 1980s, when U.S. communities of faith came together to provide shelter for and respond to the immediate needs of political refugees fleeing the wars in Guatemala and El Salvador. East Bay Sanctuary Covenant is a coalition of inter-faith congregations that pledged to provide sanctuary to Central American refugees on March 23, 1982.
Today, EBSC continues to serve and advocate for some of these same
refugees, many of whom are still awaiting their asylum approval after
working legally in this country for nearly 20 years. In addition, EBSC
has expanded its mission to answer the needs of refugees from many other
nations in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Click here to read about a
few of our clients.
At EBSC, we feel that the work we do is a valuable source of support to the community around us. We have become strongly connected to the Bay Area immigrant community through personal connections and word of mouth. We believe deeply in the power of personal counsel, and we maintain an open door policy to all members of our community who come to us in need. Not only do we provide legal immigration services, but we work with immigrant communities to help them advocate for themselves, and we feel that through this collaboration, our community becomes more whole.