Migration and Refugee Services

How you can help refugees Our needs are great and the possibilities for volunteering and helping are numerous.

• Your donations are always needed for items such as beds, bureaus, tables, chairs, sets of dishes, pots and pans, flatware, bed linens, blankets, lamps, televisions, and other basic household furnishings. Other items always in demand are laundry detergent, soap, toiletries, toilet paper, cans of coffee, flour, sugar, and cooking oil. We also accept used cars. The cars are given to those refugees who need them for transportation to their place of employment.
• Linkage with a refugee family or small group to tutor them in English as a Second Language.
• Assisting in the orientation process by helping to open a bank account, obtain a social security card, use the bus schedule, etc.
• Helping with our food distribution program on Friday mornings.
• Helping to organize a donation drive in your neighborhood, church, or office.
• Utilizing your office skills by assisting with computer input, answering the phones, filing, etc.
• Internship opportunities are always available.
• Your monetary donation is always welcome.

Opportunities for groups to Co-Sponsor:

• A co-sponsor is very special to a refugee family, probably the first contact they make in their new homeland. The co-sponsor becomes the liaison between the refugee family and the American way of life. Interestingly enough, things we take for granted, such as getting on the city bus or using the ATM, take on a deep new meaning when shared with people who are experiencing them for the first time.
• It's not hard to be a co-sponsor, and you are not alone because Catholic Charities /Migration and Refugee Services is always your co-sponsor. Sponsorship can be assumed by organizations, churches, and families.

What's expected of Co-Sponsor?

• We ask for a four-month commitment from the sponsoring group. On-going orientation and support will be provided by the staff of Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services.

Your participation includes:

• Securing housing adequate to your refugee family's needs (you can choose what size family you will sponsor).
• Furnishing the home simply but adequately from parish donations, a corporate "heart tree," thrift store purchases, or excess items from your home.
• Providing basic necessities such as food, toiletries, clothing, linens, etc.
• Assisting all employable adults in securing employment and enrolling the youth in school; taking the family for Social Security cards, health screening, introducing them to American shopping and transportation, and teaching them how our banking system works.
• Securing volunteers who will mentor and/or tutor the family in English as a Second Language and provide on-going acculturation.

The many groups who already have co-sponsored a refugee family have been richly rewarded by the experience. Their sincere caring and their emotional support of these displaced refugees, who, like many of our ancestors, came to America to begin a new life, responds to the Gospel mandate: "For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me…" Mt 25 :35.