Tulsa's American Dream Center Helps Families Integrate Into The US

American Dream Center in Tulsa is helping families from other countries get settled in Oklahoma.

The founder, Casey Jones, tells News On 6 they have helped nearly 100 families this year. Jones grew up in Oklahoma and then started traveling and living abroad.

"I lived overseas, I lived in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Ivory Coast," said Jones. 

Friends helped him adjust to life in other countries. When Jones came home, he realized there were people moving to Oklahoma from outside the U.S., who needed the same help and guidance he did abroad, so he created the American Dream Center.

"We help immigrants and refugees adjust to America," said Jones. 

The nonprofit provides immigration legal services, they help people find jobs, they even provide a translator who make errands, like going to the DMV a little easier. 

"We walk beside them and help them navigate the ins and outs of our system," said Jones. 

American Dream Center has already helped 90 families this year and hundreds since the doors opened in 2017, including people like Ariana Wilson, who immigrated to the United States with her triplets from Venezuela.

"This country opened the door for a new life," said Wilson. "Sometimes God sends angels in your life."

Wilson believes those angels are at the Dream Center. She said before she moved to the United States, she was robbed at gunpoint multiple times, she wouldn't have power for weeks at a time, and couldn't regularly access the medication her son needs. Jones and his team helped Wilson and her family receive Temporary Protected Status.  

"We can help at a lower cost since we are a nonprofit," said Jones. "These people left their friends and family, their culture, their language to try something new. We should accept them, welcome them and help them succeed because if they succeed, we succeed."

American Dream Center said they are prepared and willing to help Afghan refugees in the coming months, but haven't been contacted yet.

For more information, visit the American Dream Center's website here.