The mission of ACEDONE is to create a highway of opportunity through which the African refugee and immigrant community can develop and assimilate with their new host country. This will be achieved through academic enrichment, job training and placement, career counseling, and business development.

BACKGROUND

The African Community Economic Development Organization of New England (ACEDONE) is a grassroots organization that was founded in 2002 to assist refugees from the war stricken countries of Somalia, Ethiopia, and Sudan. We try to create a highway of opportunities to allow African refugee and immigrant community to assimilate and develop within their surroundings. Unlike many other refugee assistance groups, ACEDONE has made an intentional effort to work with individuals and communities from more than one nation; an effort based on the hope that the conflicts, which have ravaged Africa, will not be re-created here amongst refugees who have settled in the United States. This will be achieved through academic enrichment, job training, job placement, career counseling and business development. It has gained affiliations with several other grassroots organizations including the Massachusetts Association of Somali Students (MASS), Somali Alliance Against Tribalism, Somali Parent Organizing Network (SPON), and Ethiopian American Community Association. Each of these organizations works with in the areas of recommendations, referrals, outreach and publicity, thus enabling us to maintain a constant monitoring of our community’s’ pulse. In our eighth year of operation, our program continues to target the high-risk and low-income African youth demographic. Presently, we seek to create more detail-oriented programs for age specific youth, to allow for smoother transitions throughout their secondary schooling and early college years.