Arizona Refugee Center's leadership
Julianna Larsen, Co-founder
Julianna Larsen, Co-founder
Julianna Larsen, Co-founder
Julianna Larsen founded Arizona Refugee Center in September 2023 after years of direct work with refugee and immigrant families in the Phoenix–Mesa region. That experience showed her just how urgently the East Valley needed a dedicated, local organization to coordinate housing, language, and case management support for newcomers. Today she leads ARC's mission of building bridges of hope for every family who walks through its doors.
Robin Peterson, Co-founder
Julianna Larsen, Co-founder
Julianna Larsen, Co-founder
Robin Peterson has been part of Arizona Refugee Center since its earliest days, co-founding the organization alongside Julianna Larsen. A trained genealogist with a longstanding interest in family histories and the personal stories behind displacement, she started out on the ground: furnishing apartments for newly arrived families, teaching English, and preserving refugee stories through interviews. That hands-on experience shaped her role today as a partner leading case management, helping families find stability as they build new lives in Arizona.
Heidi Valle, Case Manager
Julianna Larsen, Co-founder
Heidi Valle, Case Manager
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Heidi Valle joined Arizona Refugee Center as a volunteer, where her fluency in Spanish and natural aptitude for casework quickly stood out. She now serves part-time as ARC's Spanish-speaking case worker, helping families navigate services in their own language. Outside of ARC, Heidi handles bookkeeping for her husband's general contracting business.
OUR HISTORY
Arizona Refugee Center was founded in September 2023 by Julianna Larsen, who had spent years immersed in refugee and immigrant support work across the Phoenix–Mesa region. That direct experience revealed a clear gap: East Valley newcomers were arriving with urgent needs—safe housing, language support, case management—but no locally based organization dedicated to coordinating that care.
Since opening, ARC has grown into a community-anchored hub, mobilizing volunteers and local partnerships to meet that need. To date, more than 100 volunteers have supported ARC's work, and the center has served over 1,000 families across the East Valley.
About Arizona Refugee Center
Our Mission
At the Arizona Refugee Center, we open doors and build meaningful relationships with our immigrant and refugee neighbors across Arizona by welcoming families with dignity and compassion, helping them become valued members of our community.
Through practical, life-changing resources - including English language classes, resume' and workforce development, housing support, and children's and family programs - we
empower individuals and families to adapt and thrive in their new home.
Our Vision
An Arizona where every refugee and immigrant finds not just safety, but belonging - woven into the fabric of our neighborhoods, workplaces and community.
Testimonials
Hekmatullah (Refugee)
"this is a fine and good place, when everyone comes in they are welcomed and can receive help for English lessons and documentation. My family and I learned many things and found many new friends"
Nicole (Volunteer)
"The Arizona Refugee Center is a place where refugees can come and find community and work to find a place in this country. Here we learn English and get to meet other like people who are also working to fine their home."
Robin (Partner)
"It is a center where all of humanity comes together and there is no u
judgement, there is no us versus them, it is simply all of us working to help people feel empowered where. in Mesa. I love seeing their friendships formand see the culture be able to bloom from several different places. I love the trust the we have from our refugees to not judge thembut to help them, and seeing their joyat that."
