Mission: CERI cultivates the healing, advocacy, and empowerment of refugee and immigrant communities affected by war, torture, genocide, and other life-altering traumas, weaving together their intergenerational resilience into a holistic model of community mental health care.

Center for Empowering
Refugees & Immigrants

Vision: A resilient community living life with joy, determination, purpose and love.

Our Origin

Led by the strength of survivors

CERI was established in 2006 through the vision of Dr. Mona Afary, an immigrant from Iran and women’s rights advocate, working alongside community members, care coordinators, providers, and policymakers to advance mental health care for refugees and immigrants in the Bay Area.

This vision found its heart and strength in the partnership of CERI’s participants — survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide — who, for over 20 years, carried the heavy burden of PTSD and decades of silence. It was the courage and determination of these Cambodian refugees that transformed this vision into a powerful reality and laid the foundation for CERI’s journey.

Our community

Rooted in healing, community, and empowerment

Over time, the organization’s mission grew, embracing intergenerational mental health care, advocacy, and social services alongside training, education, and cultural enrichment.

Each program fosters individual healing and collective empowerment, We create space for community-led systemic change, and community members can inspire others.

CERI is a vibrant sanctuary of Cambodian, Vietnamese, Burmese, Afghan, Tibetan, Nepali, Iranian, and Eritrean communities across the Bay Area.

At CERI, we want you to feel at home . We provide holistic, trauma-informed, and culturally-rooted, and community-led care. We foster a loving environment that celebrates diverse cultures and collective healing.

  • Mental Health Services

    CERI’s humanistic and relational clinical approach is client-centered, strength-based, rooted in love and oriented toward liberation (personal and collective) from what is systematically oppressing our communities. We offer trauma-informed and multilingual clinical counseling, medication management, and support groups.

  • Social Services & Care Coordination

    Care coordinators offer systems navigation, accompaniment, and interpretation/ translation to anyone who walks in the door.  Care coordinators are trained in Lay Counseling, and can provide skilled emotional support that is culturally contextual and in-language — helping to fill the gaps in “traditional” mental health care.

  • Youth Development Services

    Youth programs offer safe, supportive space for young people to explore wellness, creative expression and art, set goals, develop leadership skills, and advocate for social justice. Programs help youth build self-esteem, confidence, inner strength, and relational skills.

  • Arts & Culture

    From the design of our physical space to the ways that we gather with food, music, stories, and rituals, arts and culture are woven into everything we do. Our approach recognizes that healing is also about cultivating joy. By fostering pride in cultural identity, we support cultural revitalization as a powerful and essential pathway to healing.

  • Community Leadership & Advocacy

    CERI doesn’t just provide services—we amplify voices. We’ve played a key role in shaping mental health policy recommendations with immigrants and refugees in California, and support civic engagement through multilingual voter education and registration.