5 Ways You Can ACT NOW
to Support Immigrants
in an Anti-Immigrant Environment:
1
DONATE MONEY, CLOTHES,
NEW TOILETRIES, FURNITURE, MATRESSES, BICYCLES,
OR COMPUTERS
While the system is broken, we can each work to rebalance what has been put out of balance. One way we can do this is by generously sharing the resources that have been gifted to us.
2
PROVIDE BACK-END SUPPORT
We need help finding and applying for grants, writing newsletters, updating our website, conducting interviews, compiling data, keeping track of finances, and filing reports. If that sounds interesting to you, reach out and we'll get you plugged in.
3
GET TO KNOW
AN IMMIGRANT FAMILY
You can become a volunteer teaching english or sorting donations, but, even more powerfully, you can enter into community walking alongside our new neighbors.
Family partners are matched with immigrant families just starting out, to help them navigate a new place, system, and culture, but also to offer friendship. No special skills or language ability necessary -- just a belief that our new neighbors are human beings just like you.
4
START A SPECIAL FUND
Are you particularly interested in helping children with significant special needs, single mothers, pregnant mothers, families facing life-threatening illness, people trying to start a new business or kids who have never seen a squirrel experience nature?
Immigrant communities are like concentrated reflections of the spectrum of issues facing society as a whole. We can make sure your funds go to supporting a specific need in our community.
5
TELL A DIFFERENT STORY
Immigrants bring with them an indomitable hope for a life of flourishing, which is what we all want. Instead of taking away from our ability to flourish, we could see how immigrants could be energetic, hardworking partners in our wish for a better world. We could see the ways that together with them, we can reinvigorate our community.
To change the narrative, we have to speak up about the good news of welcoming the stranger. We have to engage with questions that we don't have answers to. We have to step into a story that is bigger than just us. We have to resist the temptation to choose comfort.