- It's a rude awakening to be dropped into American society, where your rent is due, and the rent is high.

Just so it all stays in there.

- [Michelle] Keith Cooper is passionate about helping people who've been displaced.

Years ago, while leading an education program for refugees in Rhode Island, he began thinking about a more hands-on approach to teach them about the American workplace.

- So I just started trying to figure out ways to get people outta the classroom, ways to keep it interactive relational, and then we'd go on little field trips to just go to Walmart or go to Home Depot or someplace, you know, that was work-related to get some sense of orientation.

- So how do you go from there to- - To a granola factory.

(chuckles) - Granola factory.

(laughs) - Yeah, well, (chuckles) I don't know.

There are moments I think, this is a crazy idea.

(Michelle laughs) I started with granola just 'cause, okay, I know how to do that.

That was easy.

It doesn't take much equipment.

You know, you need a oven and you need a burner.

That's it.

- [Michelle] And Cooper's idea has paid off literally, helping refugees learn valuable skills while offering them a salary.

Inside this kitchen in Providence, refugees from all over the world produce more than nine tons of chewy, crunchy, savory, and sweet clusters every year.

Inspired by his love of the band U2, Cooper named the organization Beautiful Day.

♪ It was a beautiful day ♪ - [Michelle] Since 2012, the nonprofit has helped prepare about 175 refugees to work in the United States.

Those in the program receive about 300 hours of training for three to four months.

They make granola bars and more than a dozen types of granola bags, including Berry Medley Cobbler and Mango Pomegranate.

Every package states, proudly made for you by refugees.

This breakfast staple has offered a fresh start for people like Rose Ntirampeba.

- You're all set, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Have a nice day.

- The mother of five sells Beautiful Day's granola at farmers' markets.

Before she joined the staff, Ntirampeba made the snack with other refugees in the training program.

What was it like to be there alongside other refugees?

- It was very nice to me 'cause I see a lot of people from different country.

We work together, communication for them, work group, and talk about our life, where you come from, our life, how was it going over there.

- Do you eat granola?

- Yeah, I eat.

- You do eat it.

- I eat granola.

(chuckles) I eat too much.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) You eat too much granola!

So they have the perfect person selling it at the farmers' market.

- Yeah, (chuckles) mm-hmm.

- Yeah.

- This is the salesperson.

(all laughing) - Ntirampeba's become a friendly and familiar face to loyal customers, but her journey to Rhode Island was a long one.

She left her home country of Burundi, the site of an ethnic-based civil war, when she was only two years old and grew up in a refugee camp in Tanzania.

Then in 2015, she moved to Rhode Island with her immediate family.

What is that like, trying to get by in a new country while you're missing your family and your friends back in your home country?

- Ah, for that, it's okay, because when you get another country, you get another friend.

Yes.

(chuckles) It depend how the people take care of you, is you feel like your family.

Yeah.

- [Michelle] Refugees from roughly 30 countries have gone through the program, including Somalia.

Nora Ismail was born there, but armed conflict in her homeland forced her to flee.

She moved to Rhode Island earlier this year.

She says working at Beautiful Day has left her feeling hopeful.

- When I come, I work.

Now I give advice for all the refugees.

You come to Rhode Island, if they wanna enjoy or they want to become, have more confidence, come to Beautiful Day.

- This year, Cooper expects to bring in about $300,000 in revenue.

That includes sales of their hummus and coffee.

You've now been doing this for 11 years.

How do you measure the success of the job training program?

- Our primary goal is just confidence.

Try to put people in a situation where they realize, I can do this.

- But confidence is that big of a barrier?

- I think it's really easy to drop into another culture and feel, I don't know, feel alone and strange.

- You're doing a very good job!

- [Michelle] Learning English helps overcome those feelings.

- Is it hot or cold?

- This one?

- Yes.

- (chuckles) This one hot.

- Ah!

Very hot!

- [Michelle] Maliss Coletta is the director of training at Beautiful Day.

She helps refugees work on their vocabulary.

She says the training program is a springboard for full-time employment.

- You are measuring.

Once they are placed in a job, the skills that they gain from Beautiful Day is to help them keep the job.

If they are not prepared, they might be placed in a job, but they may not be able to keep it.

What is this called?

- A tray.

- And what are you doing with the tray?

- Putting on the table.

- [Michelle] Coletta knows all too well the hardships these refugees are facing.

- I spent my formative years living in refugee camps, moving from one to another, looking to be accepted as a refugee.

- [Michelle] She was born during a bloody civil war in Cambodia and fled in the middle of the night when she was six years old.

- Being a first-generation refugee, having to experience firsthand the trauma, the loss, the grief, and having seen my parents, my family also struggle, it bring me to a place where I can serve refugees to be able to help them sort of navigate life here in a new country.

- [Michelle] It's a struggle millions will face.

The United Nations estimates more than 117 million people worldwide will be forcibly displaced or stateless this year.

Born to missionary parents in Vietnam, Cooper grew up seeing the struggles many face in their own country.

- They were linguists, so they were working with indigenous people who often were not literate, didn't have a written language, were often persecuted by the nationals.

So, of course, those issues of belonging and difference are just really important to me.

Yes, have a seat, have a seat - [Michelle] Once a week, Beautiful Day invites refugees and staff members to a community dinner.

On this night, Syrian food is on the menu.

- [Staff Member] It's called fattet.

- Fattet.

- Fattet, yes.

- [Keith] You stir it all together first?

- You don't have to, the people has, you know, different ways of eating.

- [Michelle] It's an opportunity to talk with people from different walks of life behind a shared mission.

- Three days, four days.

- To ferment it.

I feel like it's a celebration to be around people who are different.

This is a gift, to be in a place where people are discovering how to communicate with each other.

- If Beautiful Day did not exist, where do you think the refugees who work in this kitchen would be working?

- Well, some would not be.

Let's face it.

Others would just have a longer journey into the workforce, and a discouraging one.

- [Michelle] Something Cooper says could easily be avoided if companies invested more in refugees.

- I think employers sometimes don't have the perspective or tools to say, you know, we're gonna build a multicultural work team where you can work with somebody who's at the beginnings of learning English.

You have to be able to make some investments in case management, in translation, in flexibility.

- [Michelle] His bottom line?

- I think refugees make really great employees.

If employers make the effort to employ them, I have no doubt that they end up with, you know, amazingly good workers.

(bright music)