To reach out to older populations, people who lived in rural areas, and people who were having difficulty learning English, the Institute launched the Refugee Information and Referral Project. Funded by San Francisco’s Department of Social Services, the project employed bilingual workers, who had arrived as refugees themselves, to connect clients with resources in the areas of employment, health, housing, education, immigration, and welfare. Two years later in 1985, the California State Department of Social Services granted funds to the International Institute and eight other local agencies to develop a demonstration project that would provide long-term case management services to refugees who had been unable to become self-sufficient. During the three-year term of the project, every benchmark was reached. The project helped place hundreds of refugees in jobs and generated welfare savings that exceeded the project’s costs.