Why We’re Moving

For 15 years Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE) has helped asylum seekers, immigrant survivors of trafficking and torture, and other forced migrants rebuild their lives in Baltimore.

Since 2016, AWE has operated from a building in Northeast Baltimore alongside our partners HEAL Refugee Health & Asylum Collaborative (HEAL) and the Intercultural Counseling Connection (the Connection). Recently, the property was sold, and we must relocate by the end of the year.

We now have the opportunity to purchase a building at 1234 W. 36th St. in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood.

By purchasing this property, we will establish a permanent home for AWE, HEAL, and the Connection – one that preserves our integrated model of care, supports future growth, and ensures immigrant families can continue accessing the services they need to rebuild their lives with safety, dignity, and belonging.

Making this vision a reality will take the support of our community.

Thanks to the generosity of early supporters, we’ve raised enough to cover the down payment. Now, we need our broader community to help us raise the remaining $200,000 for moving costs, renovations, and other expenses needed to make the building ours.

We’re asking people who believe in our mission to help us reach our goal and build a permanent home for AWE and the communities we serve.

What We Do

AWE supports asylum seekers and immigrant trafficking survivors as they rebuild their lives in Maryland. With our partners, we provide wrap-around services so Baltimore’s newest neighbors can live with safety, dignity and hope.

Our services include case management, immigration legal services, education and community activities, financial and material assistance, youth services, and medical care and therapy through our partners HEAL and the Connection.

Why It Matters

Since 2025, we’ve witnessed escalating attacks on immigrant communities and the rapid dismantling of pathways to safety and permanent status in the United States.

For our clients, the consequences are immediate and deeply personal. Work permits take longer to obtain and now come with hundreds of dollars in fees. Asylum hearings are moved up with little notice, leaving people just weeks to prepare, while some cases are closed before individuals have the opportunity to make their case in court.

People who came to this country seeking safety and are complying with every aspect of the law are being detained, forced to wear painful ankle monitors, and deported back to danger - or even to countries where they have never lived. Parents are making impossible decisions about who will care for their children if they are detained, while cuts to public benefits make it even harder for families to meet their basic needs.

Our clients are scared, and their needs are growing.

Through all of this, many of our clients tell us AWE is the only place where they still feel safe.

It’s where they learn English, teach cooking classes, plant fruits and vegetables from their home countries in our garden, share food, hold each other’s babies, pick up medication, meet with their therapist, laugh, cry, make friends, and find community.

It's a place where their immigration status does not define them. A place where they can be themselves. A place where they belong.

Your donations will help us continue to provide a safe and welcoming place, where we can keep building the community that means so much to so many – at a time when we all need community more than ever.

How You Can Help

Fundraise: Create a personal fundraiser and invite your friends and family to help us reach our goal. See our Public Fundraiser Toolkit for tools and more information.

Donate: Every donation no matter the size brings us closer to a permanent home. To learn more about how we will recognize donors and fundraisers, please see our Public Fundraiser Toolkit.

Spread the Word: Help us reach more people by sharing our campaign with your community. Templates, images, and posts to share can be found here.

Building Belonging in Baltimore

Help Secure a Permanent Home for Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE) & Our Partners