top of page
Bosnian Community Center for Resource & Development
Florian Eenkema van Dijk
THE CENTER / Lynn, Mass.
The Bosnian Community Center is a non-profit organization that assists refugees and immigrants assimilate into American culture. Founded in 1998 by a group of former Yugoslavs and Americans, the center provides culturally and linguistically appropriate services to refugees who have resettled in the metropolitan Boston area.
Besides providing free English language courses, the Center helps with citizenship applications, legal assistance, health insurance, and a variety of other services that allow refugees to feel comfortable, find employment, and succeed in their new world. As the city of Lynn's population has grown more diverse, so has the Center, which now offers services to clients from all around the world and a total of 20 languages can be heard inside its walls.
Adnan Zubcevic / Founder
Adnan worked in a neuropsychiatry clinic in Sarajevo, then abandoned his work to fight in the Bosnian war and eventually fled to the United States. With his doctorate in medicine, he started his on practice in Massachusetts. He founded BCCRD because he felt refugees weren't receiving the proper help they needed after they were released from the American resettlement programs. He believed that there needed to be an in-between that allowed refugees the opportunity to properly start a new life, while contributing their unique view to society in a positive and meaningful way.
After 20 years, Adnan remains the head of the organization that has taken on a variety of new cultures and languages. He stopped pursuing his professional career and works full time as the executive director of BCCRD, alongside a myriad of volunteers (who Adnan says he could always use more of). He expanded on what the Center stands for and how it operates in an interview below...
bottom of page