Our mission is to prevent the growing marginalization of new immigrants and refugees from highly traditional societies through specialized transitional services, leading to their successful integration into the socio-economic and civic life of America while continuing to maintain pride in their cultural heritage.

CIANA has been serving immigrant New Yorkers for over 18 years, with a primary focus on new immigrant communities coming from the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), South Asia, Latin America, and more recently, West African asylum seekers. Our overarching goal is to provide a continuum of social services that address the unique cultural and language barriers that prevent the full social and economic integration of emerging immigrant communities.

We strive to identify newcomers soon after they arrive in the country, introduce them to American systems and laws, and offer them a path towards citizenship and socio-economic advancement. Our specialty is reaching out and engaging our historically underserved and marginalized low-income immigrant populations that face significant barriers to self-sufficiency, and have to cope alone with low family literacy, joblessness, uncertain legal status, educational barriers, and other social and economic vulnerabilities.