Pars Equality Center hosts a booth at the recent World Refugee Day in Los Angeles.
Pars Equality Center founder Bita Daryabari holding a proclamation from the Mayor of San Jose, who proclaimed March 22nd as Pars Equality Center Day. Left to right: Mayor Chuck Reed, PEC case manager Reza Odabaee, PEC founder and executive director Bita Daryabari, PEC case manager Bahman Daryabary, PEC case manager Sepehr Amirjahed, advisory board member Nahal Iravani and other distinguished guests.
Philanthropist and entrepreneur Bita Daryabari’s Pars Equality Center (parsequalitycenter.org)—a Bay Area non-profit organization, and the first of its kind, providing social and legal support for all members of the Iranian American community, including refugees, asylees and immigrants—opened its second office in San Jose, California in April 2012, and just expanded into the Los Angeles market with its third office. The LA office, located in Westwood, opened on April 1, 2013.
Daryabari, Pars Equality Center (PEC) founder and executive director, says, “We are here to ensure that our community is served in the best way possible, and Pars Equality Center truly blossomed this past year. We continue to introduce new programs in the areas of social and legal services that are improving lives, so we are excited about the prospects for bringing this unique set of services to Los Angeles-based Iranian Americans.”
PEC is known for holding community-wide events, such as job fairs, as well as partnering with local and national community organizations. The non-profit has been expanding its reach to the most vulnerable Iranian Americans—Iranians who have recently arrived in the U.S. with few or no financial resources and need support in order to establish themselves in this country.
With the help of Iranian and American volunteers, PEC Social Services range from mentorship programs to ESL classes, a computer lab, in-home visits, emergency assistance, and job development services (i.e. soft-skills workshops, resume preparation, job placement, and personal follow-up). In the Bay Area, a newly established casework system served over 160 newcomer Iranians and their families in its first year alone. In 2012, PEC hosted three job fairs that connected more than 200 job seekers with 38 Iranian or American employers, leading to 45 successful job placements, despite the difficult economy. The organization hopes to have the same success stories in the Los Angeles market.
The legal department at PEC focuses on providing general guidance and research in essentially all areas of the law, such as helping community members navigate through the complicated Iran Transactions Regulations overseen by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC Sanctions), and offering low-income individuals assistance applying for OFAC licenses, as well as tackling complex issues relating to discrimination.
For more information, please visit http://www.parsequalitycenter.org/.
About Pars Equality Center
Founded by Bita Daryabari in 2010, the Pars Equality Center (PEC) is a non-profit organization, and the first of its kind, supporting the full integration of people of Persian (Iranian) origin in the United States. PEC provides social and legal support for all members of the Iranian American community, including refugees, asylees, immigrants and the American-born. The Center advocates for more positive perceptions of Persians in the U.S. media, while offering services and programs that help establish, integrate and support Iranian Americans so that they are able to function responsibly and productively in American society. Daryabari’s aim is to create a more just and compassionate community in which Iranians of all cultures and beliefs can participate. http://www.parsequalitycenter.org/
