About Us
Our Mission & Guiding Principles
Hope Care and Beyond’s mission is to provide support and empowerment to the immigrant and refugee community based in Michigan as well as to disadvantaged and working poor minorities of local American born communities across the Metro Detroit Area. With special focus on guiding and empowering the women of these communities, we are dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for these individuals by promoting cultural integration, providing essential services and basic needs, and providing opportunities for job training and development through our vocational sewing skills initiative.
Hope Care and Beyond assures our compassion and assistance through dedicating our Time, Talent, and Treasures to fulfilling our mission. Refugee and immigrant families and individuals are never treated like numbers, we leverage the strengths of our team to accomplish the goals of the mission, and we practice good stewardship and optimize our resources.
Our Staff
Cynthia Khan
Sharoon Attray
Brandi Woods
Director of Community Engagement
Being raised in a traditional Eastern culture & immigrating from Pakistan to the U.S. with her family over 30 years ago, Cynthia has a deep understanding of the the unique challenges refugee and immigrant women face adjusting to life in a new Western & American culture. She has compassion for women's issues and uses her educational background as a teacher to guide HCB's programming vision and build meaningful connections with community leaders, businesses, and organizations for the benefit of program participants and the whole of the community.
Brandi Woods
Sharoon Attray
Brandi Woods
Program Coordinator / Liaison
American born & Detroit bred, Brandi helps with marketing & promotions, articles & blogs, maintaining the social platforms, news & event 'blasts', and maintaining the website. She also fields referrals, volunteer interests & donation contacts. As necessary, she travels among the administrative office in Clinton Township, the ESL campus in Dearborn & the sewing workroom in the newly opened Detroit campus & can sometimes be seen hosting a table for HCB at community events, gatherings, & networking sessions.
Sharoon Attray
Sharoon Attray
Sharoon Attray
Assistant Program Director
Sharoon Attray holds an MBA from Walsh College of Business Administration in Troy, Michigan. Prior to this, he pursued an MPhil of Political Science degree from GC University Lahore, renowned as the largest university in Pakistan, known for producing Nobel Laureates. He also attained a Master's degree from Forman Christian College, a chartered university with roots traced back to American missionary endeavors.
Sharoon has garnered ample experience in the non-profit sector. He has contributed significantly to organizations such as Rutgers International, headquartered in the Netherlands and operating across 29 countries, focusing on reproductive health rights. Additionally, he has been actively involved with ITA, a Pakistan-based non-profit dedicated to promoting fundamental education rights.
Akima George
Sha'Tyra Berry
Sharoon Attray
Development Specialist
Intelligent, laser focused, & driven, with a degree in bioinformatics, Akima is highly skilled at making sense of the numbers & data. Well organized & able to help connect the dots of the details needed to execute the larger vision, Akima is sharp, concise, & gifted in helping leverage HCB's collaborations to effect the most beneficial outcomes for program participants, the organization, and community partners, those existing & potential. A versatile & integral member of the team, Akima assists with managing special projects, processes, data, partner & donor communications, & other operations. Akima hails from the Virgin Islands.
Immer Attray
Sha'Tyra Berry
Sha'Tyra Berry
Communications Manager
Cosmopolitan Immer has dual citizenship in the U.S. & Canada, speaks three different languages and is at home in Dubai, Toronto, Miami, or Birmingham. Her adaptability allows her to easily juggle the demands of her role as Communications Manager & creative design lead. She edits, curates, designs, and oversees newsletters, articles, special campaigns & projects, photo & video stories, our social media platforms, promotions, & updates & communications to partners. She has a special eye for design & is skilled at conveying the right messaging at the most opportune time & powerfully communicating moods and messages to our audience.
Sha'Tyra Berry
Sha'Tyra Berry
Sha'Tyra Berry
Case Manager - BRES Project
Sha'Tyra Berry is a well-connected native Detroiter, has done teaching, social work, and community engagement with families and community members and organizations for over 12 years. As employment barrier removal case manager, Berry handles client registration, profiles, and records maintenance. She evaluates clients' barriers, needs, and is the first line in assisting clients in assessing their work readiness and capabilities in order to facilitate access to appropriate services with the ultimate goal of helping clients achieve wellness and career placement. Coordinating employment resource providers and facilities, as well as keeping abreast of, and attending, resources, services, events, and 'happenings' in and around the city, Berry, also promotes program awareness through community outreach.
Anthony Deegan
Anthony Deegan
Anthony Deegan
Transport Coordinator
Silas Motyka
Anthony Deegan
Anthony Deegan
ESL Teacher
Oranos Rauf
Anthony Deegan
Oranos Rauf
Program Coordinator/Teacher
Kamira Ford
Christian Deschene
Oranos Rauf
Program Coordinator/Teacher
Christian Deschene
Christian Deschene
Christian Deschene
Photographer/Videographer
Julie Schrameck
Christian Deschene
Christian Deschene
ESL Teacher
Julia is a professional ballet dancer who teaches ESL at the Dearborn-IFC. She will also be engaging students in some dance moves for quick exercise, to help alleviate stress, & just for some good plain fun!
Our Story
Our History
Hope Care and Beyond’s (HCB) directors of operations and community engagement immigrated from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to Canada, and finally to the U.S. for work, settling in Michigan over 30 years ago. While both were well educated and connected, they saw that their story was not one that other immigrants, and especially many refugees, shared. Though it was challenging at first to navigate and familiarize themselves with some of the American systems, they found Americans welcoming, helpful, and openhearted, aiding them in acclimating to life in a new, Western and American culture. Since then, it has been their goal to help immigrants and refugees connect to the same positive experiences and types of guidance they received by forming strong community partnerships with local community organizations.
The Directors developed HCB, a privately funded 501(c)3, non-profit human care project. Through relationship building, its mission became to help meet the basic physical and social needs of refugees and immigrants in Michigan and the United States as they transitioned to life as new Americans with the eventual goal of bringing them to a level of stability and self-sufficiency by collaborating with local churches, businesses, community organizations and a network of volunteers.
Our Present
The response to this segment of the populations’ needs was overwhelmingly positive amongst those receiving services as well as with other social service networks that would refer refugee and immigrant families and individuals to HCB for help. As a result, the decision was made to create Hope Care and Beyond into a separate arm of service. Program services have since expanded to include marginalized populations in local communities in addition to continuing to support refugee and immigrant communities. Today, HCB, in partnership with community leaders, organizations, and volunteers offers a myriad of services and resources accessible through community hubs known as International Friendship Centers (IFCs). It is through these centers that refugee, immigrant, and disenfranchised families/individuals can access:
- Basic needs pantries for assistance with food, clothing, and basic housewares
- Quality-of-life building resources and classes such as:
- English as a second language (ESL) class
- Citizenship and Cultural assimilation classes
- Sewing skill classes
- Many other resources and services
IFCs are based in the communities where there is recognized need helping ensure that programming is well attended by decreasing the limitations lack of transportation can bring.
Our Future
HCB’s motto is “Together, We Can!”, one that rings true because of the great team and community effort of partnership employed to help refugee, immigrant, and disenfranchised families/individuals have a sense of belonging and gain the satisfaction of becoming self-reliant. In order for our programming to remain successful, HCB realizes that it is important that the native-born communities and international/disenfranchised families/individuals see themselves as allies, essential to building and growing their communities, together. As such, we employ a program model that relies heavily on community engagement through volunteerism which encourages and builds upon involvement from local communities. Participation from the neighboring communities is open and encouraged as we affirm this by seeking our volunteer base within the local community and offering community-building events and gatherings. HCB desires to help each group to create a partnership in which each sees how they are able to share, and contribute, equally. With IFCs currently in Warren and Dearborn, MI, HCB seeks to expand to offering additional IFC locations in the Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland Counties in Michigan.
Our Partners
Support Refugee Families
Click the link to learn how you can make a difference within the refugee community!