The round table conference and kickoff event for the Transatlantic Refugee Resettlement Network (TRRN) took place November 4, 2016 at the German Consulate in San Francisco. There were over 40 professionals and researchers in attendance, as well as graduate students, with several more watching the live webcast. Many more in the US and Germany expressed interest in the event, but were not able to attend in person.

Speakers from Germany, Minnesota and California discussed their experience, what works and the challenges in the resettlement and integration of refugees. Such topics as human rights, memory and other topics of post conflict communities, the complexity and challenges of navigating our US food system for refugees, resettlement policy recommendations for German policy makers and research and development of tools to measure the effectiveness of food secure resettlement were covered and discussed. See the program and highlights here: http://www.carriemannconsulting.com/trrn

As a practitioner-led Network – now numbering over 150 professionals – a larger event is now being planned by the representative TRRN Steering Committee for Washington DC in 2017. In the interim, the Network is working to expand to include resettlement practitioners from across the US and Germany and is also developing an interactive web space to enable communication and sharing of research and experience. To follow the Network’s development, join our Facebook Group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TRRNetwork/