In the refugee service world, a Mutual Assistance Association (MAA) is an organization that has emerged from within a refugee community to address some of the unmet social needs in this community. The MAA Coalition is an innovative, multi-ethnic collaboration between eleven such organizations in the Boston and North Shore areas. With support from the Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants, the Coalition was founded in 2000 to strengthen the organizational capacity and operational efficiencies of its members through inter-agency mentoring, collaborative service delivery, and shared resources. Through collective engagement, the Coalition also provides its member MAAs with a strong vehicle for:

• Building and strengthening bridges to mainstream service systems
• Promoting culturally and linguistically appropriate services and a better understanding of ethnically diverse populations in non-ethnic communities and
• Competing for state and local service contracts.