About Colorado African Organization
Colorado African Organization (CAO) is a locally-run nonprofit – founded by Africans for Africans – that works to help refugees and immigrants make the difficult transition from their homelands into a new life in the state of Colorado.
Formed by a group of African professionals who knew from experience how difficult it could be to settle into a new country with a completely different culture and language, CAO helps Africans integrate and succeed in all areas of their lives, with programs including Education and Skills Training, Employment Assistance, Civic Engagement, Language Classes, and Social Integration.
Embracing the old African proverb that "sticks in a bundle are unbreakable," the organization makes help available to any African immigrant or refugee, regardless of their country of origin, gender, ethnicity, religion, or economic status. This core value of CAO – to be a unified advocate for all Africans in Colorado – is what makes it so valuable to its members.
While African immigrants represent less than one half of a percent of Colorado's total population, that equates to more than 25,000 men, women, and children who have been uprooted from their homes, careers, and families to search for a better life thousands of miles away.
While there are some immigrants who arrive in America with some resources and English language skills, many are refugees, fleeing their home countries because of war and genocide. While refugees receive basic government assistance with their transition, that only lasts for eight months – not nearly long enough to adjust to an entirely new culture and language. Immigrants on work and student visas receive no such support. CAO also works with individuals and families who have come to our country via a lottery visa, who arrive at the airport and often find themselves “on their own” in a new land, with no idea how to even find a home or get a job.
Even though lots of refugees and immigrants were doctors, lawyers, and professionals in their home countries, they are unable to be certified – or even find hourly work – in the United States. They often find that they are isolated from mainstream society, and with no marketable skills. That’s where CAO comes in.
Rather than letting them face all of these challenges on their own, or fracture into small communities based on their ethnicity, CAO works to help them not only survive – but thrive – in their new home. With classes on topics like computers and English as a second language (ESL), health education, and social ties to other Africans, CAO helps its members to beat the odds and find the American dream.
CAO also provides leadership training in the form of technical assistance and capacity building for two other ethnic community based organizations, the Colorado Rangers Organization (CRO) (www.corangers.org) and the Global Bhutanese Community Colorado (GBCC) (www.mygbcc.org), to help them organize and grow to serve their respective refugee communities from Burma and Bhutan. As these are the newest refugee communities in Colorado, CAO supports the development of these two organizations so that all refugees, from Africa, Bhutan and Burma, can find success here in the US.
CAO is operated as an all-African 501 (c)(3), relying mainly on grants, donations, and volunteers from communities and companies in Colorado and beyond. Click here to find out how you can help us make a positive difference in the lives of thousands of immigrants and refugees every year.