History and Mission
Mission
ISED provides consulting and evaluation services to organizations focused on refugee and immigrant services so that they may improve social and economic outcomes for low-income people.
History
ISED incorporated in 1987 as a small microenterprise agency based in Iowa. During the following two decades, ISED evolved into a nationally recognized research and consulting nonprofit organization, serving more than 400 organizations, governments, and others in the national refugee and immigrant service sector.
ISED began its first evaluation in 1989, researching subjects as diverse as child welfare, welfare reform, developmental disabilities, foster care, rural economic development, and housing.
In 1990, ISED expanded its small enterprise program across 36 counties in Iowa and Illinois with funding from the Small Business Administration and the federal Department of Health and Human Services. ISED provided access to financing for women, ethnic minorities and disadvantaged populations, as well as a loan guarantee program and self-employment training. The World Council of Churches and the U.S. Agency for International Development supported ISED in replicating and adapting its services in other parts of the world.
ISED began microenterprise development for Iowa refugees in 1991 and later received funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement to provide technical assistance to all refugee microenterprise development programs nationwide.
In 1993, ISED was a subcontractor to Mathematica Policy Research in a seven-year evaluation of Iowa’s landmark welfare reform initiative. A few years later, ISED won a competitive welfare reform “leavers study” in Kansas.
In 1999, ISED won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development and developed Refugee Individual Development Account (IDA) programs in Iowa. In 2000, the federal Office of Community Services, Administration for Children and Families took the IDA project nationwide.
ISED opened a Washington, D.C. office in 2003 and incorporated the office as ISED Solutions. ISED Corporate remains in Iowa and serves as the parent organization of ISED Solutions and ISED Ventures (a direct service organization in Iowa).
ISED Solutions began global projects, funded by the U.S. Department of State, with an exchange program for Tunisian women entrepreneurs. Domestic work continued with a contract from the United Way of America to evaluate its employer-based IDA programs in 16 U.S. cities. Technical assistance to the Office of Refugee Resettlement continued through this period.
Starting in 2004 ISED Solutions employed its “virtual company” business model, with seven staff delivering effective, efficient service from remote locations.
Strengthening refugee service agencies continues to be ISED Solutions’ central focus. Current program areas include microenterprise, individual development accounts, subsidized employment, refugee ethnic organizational support, alternative refugee resettlement programs, and a new refugee farmer initiative.
