Ascentria Care Alliance (ACA)

The ACA is a coalition member of Evacuate Our Allies, and its Immigration Legal Assistance program is also a part of Global Refuge, one of the largest refugee resettlement organizations in the United States. ^{2 3}

Background

Ascentria Care Alliance (ACA) is a social services network based in Worcester, Massachusetts. The organization was founded as the Martin Luther Orphan’s Home at Brook Farm in 1872, a volunteer organization that helped children as well as “aged, weak, and helpless persons.” ⁴ Following Brook Farm was the establishment of a Lutheran agency, which eventually became Lutheran Social Services of New England in 1992. The organization changed its name to Ascentria Care Alliance in 2014. ⁴

Ascentria claims to have 60 locations in the region as well as being “one of the largest community service organizations in New England.” ¹ The organization provides services to children, such as adoption and foster care; people diagnosed with mental disorders and learning disabilities, such as group homes and independent housing; the elderly, such as low-income housing and assisted living; and refugees, with services such as legal aid, cultural orientation, and employment services. ¹

ACA’s Immigration Legal Assistance program provides free and low-cost legal assistance to migrants and refugees which include “relief from removal (deportation),” asylum, and Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS. ³

The Immigration Legal Assistance program is also a part of Global Refuge, one of the largest refugee resettlement organizations in the United States. Global Refuge received at least $881 million in U.S. government grants during the Biden administration to work on refugee resettlement-related issues. ACA also claims that the program was partially supported by the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance through the Victims of Crime Act of 1984, which is associated with the U.S. Department of Justice. ^{3 5}

Coalition Memberships

The Ascentria Care Alliance (ACA) is a coalition member of Evacuate Our Allies, a coalition of veterans’ groups, human rights organizations, religious groups, and refugee organizations advocating for the relocation and resettlement of at-risk Afghans to the United States following the withdrawal of the U.S military from Afghanistan in August 2021. ^{2 6 7}

Financials

Ascentria Care Alliance (ACA) receives most of its revenue from program services, but also partly from contributions and grants. The organization’s revenue amounted to just under $6.4 million in 2021, jumped to just over $11.7 million in 2022, and fell to just over $8.1 million in 2023. ⁸

The organization’s expenses totalled just over $7.65 million in 2021, roughly $11.4 million in 2022, and under $11 million in 2023. ⁸

Funding

The Greater Worcester Community Foundation lists Ascentria Care Alliance (ACA) as part of its “Community Grants” program under the “legal assistance support” and “new resettlement support” sections. ⁹

The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts awarded ACA $81,600 in 2019 as part of the foundation’s Activation Fund grants, which totalled around $800,000. The foundation also provided ACA with a grant of $50,000 in 2021 to “support Afghan evacuees evacuated and resettled in the United States.”  ^{10 11}