Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island

In 2013, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island was born from the union of two great organizations: the International Institute of Rhode Island and the Dorcas Place Adult and Family Literacy Center.

 Dorcas Place helped low-income adults to realize their full potential through literacy, collaboration, advocacy, and community involvement starting back in 1981. Since then, it has joined forces with the International Institute of Rhode Island (IIRI), which was originally housed in two rooms on Weybosset Street and began as an affiliate of the YWCA, to create Dorcas International, an all-encompassing agency that does not only provide education and job readiness opportunities but also legal services for citizenship and immigration and refugee resettlement programs.

After the merge, Dorcas International, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, has continued nearly a century’s worth of work in the community, collectively serving the needs of immigrants and refugees in RI and southeastern Massachusetts since 1921.