Request for Participation Letter

Dear Mr./Ms. ----------,

Refugees like you are forced to flee your homelands to bravely begin new lives in American society. Once you are in the United States, it is important that you be supported in your journey to adapt to a new community and society. To better help you and others like yourself, we need to understand what you are experiencing as you adjust to life in the U.S.

You have been selected to participate in a voluntary study about how refugees adapt to life in the United States. It is funded by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and being conducted by the Urban Institute and a research organization called SSRS. You will continue to receive social services and benefits regardless of your decision to participate in the study.

A trained interviewer from SSRS will be calling you in a few weeks to conduct a telephone survey in [primary language], English or another language in which you may be more comfortable, such as [language2 or language3]. The interviewer will ask some questions about your education and work and any help you are getting from the government. The interview will take up to 30 minutes, but it may be shorter. Afterwards, we will send you a $25 gift card as a token of appreciation for participating.

In order to be able to reach you, we want to make sure we have your correct telephone number. This is the number that we have on file: xxx-xxx-xxxx.

If this is no longer correct or you prefer us to contact you at another number, please let us know. You can:

• S

  If you would be more comfortable speaking with someone in [language2], call xxx-xxx-xxxx or for [language3], call xxx-xxx-xxxx.

  end back the enclosed contact card with your correct information using the postage-paid envelope

• Email us at Annualsurvey@urbansurveys.org, OR

• Call us at [xxx-xxx-xxxx]. Someone who speaks [primary language] will answer the phone. At that point, you can either provide a number where you can be reached at a convenient time to take the survey, or just do the survey while you are on the phone.

Thank you for considering participating in this important study. Sharing your perspective will help us understand what refugees like you are going through. The results will help inform how the refugee resettlement system can be improved.

Sincerely,

Hamutal Bernstein and Robert Santos, Co-Principal Investigators

Urban Institute

An agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. The OMB number for this information collection is 0970-0033 and the expiration date is XX/XX/XXXX.