Bilingual International Assistant Services

Bilingual International was founded in 2002 by refugee women and has grown to offer five distinct programming arms - Mental Health, Social Services (including the state's first multicultural senior center), Immigration and Naturalization, Advocacy and Outreach, and Language Services (interpretation and translation) - that serve a broad range of ages, languages, and needs. Most services are delivered directly in the community, usually in participants' homes. Our highly trained multilingual staff speaks 15 languages and has recourse to a professional interpreter pool with an additional 45 languages. 

Bilingual International is certified by the Department of Mental Health and regularly undergoes rigorous audits by its primary governmental social service contractor. In 2016, Bilingual International absorbed two of its partner agencies in the St. Louis Partnership for Survivors of Torture, which raised the visibility of the work we do with this specialized population.

Bilingual International provides a broad range of mental health and social services to area racial and ethnic minorities, the vast majority of whom are foreign-born, live well below the poverty level, and are recipients of means-tested benefits. Across 25 projects, professional multilingual staff work directly with underserved communities that have linguistic and/or cultural barriers to care. Agency services assist over 3,000 clients annually.

With the formal expansion of services to immigrant/refugee children in 2014, the agency now works with both children and adults in the St. Louis area. Many clients suffer from physical and/or mental trauma incurred in their countries of origin or during the process of migration.