Team Welcome Monthly Update
For Resurrection Members & Friends Welcoming Newcomers
APRIL 2023
TEAM AIM: To live out Matthew 25, "I was a stranger and you welcomed me."
- Provide serve ops through community partners to welcome immigrants in KC
- Connect community to share, care & grow together
- Honor differences among people & stand with them in kind and just ways
- Extend hospitality, invite proximity, encourage buddy system & advocate for others
UPCOMING DATES
- APRIL 15, 20 or 21: Various Serve Ops at KCPS International Welcome Center
- April 23-29: Culinary Journey Across the Globe In Westport
- April 26: Della Lamb Monthly Lunch & Learn
- May 7: JVS Global Table Annual Fundraiser
- May 11: Welcome Team Volunteer Meeting
APRIL 15, 20 or 21: SERVE OPs WITH KCPS
Are you &/or friends free Saturday, April 15, 20 &/or 21? Help is needed at the KCPS International Welcome Center! This center is a unique and innovative site that provides comprehensive support to the immigrant, migrant, refugee and non-native English speaking families in our community.
April 15: Clothing Closet - They are significantly upgrading their clothing closet for arriving newcomer families and could use some extra helping hands to sort and stock donations. Please signup to help on the link below.
April 20 or 21: Move &/or Help SetUp Donated Office Cubicles - Resurrection's Helping Hands Construction Team has agreed to help the Welcome Center relocate and setup a generous donation from NASB Bank. They could use a few more hands to help move these items on the 20th and unload/setup on the 21st. Please signup to help on the link below.
Allyson Hile, Director of Language Services and Cultural Equity at Kansas City Public Schools, spoke at Team Welcome's January volunteer meeting. Our volunteer team's liaison is Sally Harter (sallyharter@gmail.com). Please reachout if you'd like to get involved there. The KCPS International Welcome Center is located at 711 Woodland Avenue, KCMO.
Resurrection's Education Team partners with the Woodland Early Learning Center located on a different floor in the same building. This is a Head Start program that provides supports for academics, family services, health, nutrition, mental health and disabilities. The aim is to develop kindergarten readiness skills such as letter recognition, emergent writing, literacy, mathematics and social-emotional development. Families served there will use the same clothing closet and food pantry as the Welcome Center.
April 23-29: Culinary Journey Across the Globe
Did you know Westport is having an International Food Week?! It is from April 23-29. This inaugural event showcases the diverse and authentic cuisine from around the world from this original part of Kansas City.
April 26: A conversation with Della Lamb
Della Lamb is spending the months of April & May with a focus on replenishing materials and building new teams to welcome families. Are you interested in gathering needed supplies or hosting a donation drive? Maybe forming a group to setup a home? Or perhaps a group to walk with an arriving family for six-months? These upcoming virtual lunch & learns over zoom are a great way to explore possibilities and get your questions answered.
Upcoming dates-
- Apr 26, 2023 12:00 PM
- May 31, 2023 12:00 PM
- Jun 28, 2023 12:00 PM
Use the link below to register or email questions to email@dellalamb.org
May 7: You're invited To JVS Global Table
Global Table is the annual fundraiser for Jewish Vocational Service (www.jvskc.org) ... and it's back in person after a three year COVID hiatus! Join the fun, learn more and support the amazing work of this incredible organization.
Sunday, May 7th
From 5:30-8:00PM
Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center
8788 Metcalf Avenue, Overland Park, Kansas 66212
Individual tickets are $125. Use link below to purchase.
- INTERNATIONAL FARE (All Cuisine Catering)
- LIVE MUSIC (Salvation Choir / Congolese) & ART (Basimise Fabrice)
- RAFFLE PACKAGES (Tickets $25 each or 5 for $100)
- SUCCESS STORIES (JVS Community Partners)
- CELEBRATION OF STUDENTS (Graduating Seniors From East High School)
may 11: Next team meeting
Thursday, May 11
From 6:30-8:00PM
Resurrection Downtown
1601 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MO.
- Panel Discussion: Volunteers share insights from serving with the local community sponsorship groups
- Plus, volunteer mixer, liaison & summer serve plan updates
Please invite a friend & register at the link below.
community sponsorship groups
Resurrection has THREE local groups ... so far!!!
There is a movement across the country to encourage community members to partner with local resettlement agencies and walk alongside a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resettled refugee family for their first 6-months in the United States. This process can include securing and preparing initial housing, greeting refugee newcomers at the airport, enrolling children in school, helping adults to find employment, learning to navigate bus routes, sharing English enrichment activities, going on fun field trips to local library, the zoo and more.
Here in Kansas City, Resurrection partners with Della Lamb (www.dellalamb.org) and Jewish Vocational Service (www.jvskc.org). Each organization has formed their own unique approach to community sponsorship. A volunteer group essentially makes a 6-month commitment to welcome and walk alongside a specific refugee family assigned by and in partnership with a local agency.
The groups are made up of members from different campuses and their friends/neighbors. Each group is approximately 15 people and has a designated group leader to liaison between group members and agency staff. Deep friendships form among the volunteer group and with the newcomer families. All involved are on an incredibly rewarding journey together!
Are you interested in forming &/or being in a group?
- Team Liaison with Della, Brian Nowotny, nowotnybrian@gmail.com
- Team Liaison with JVS, Julie Doane julierdoane@icloud.com
VOLUNTEER REFLECTION
Doty Hoffman
Resurrection Downtown member
I have the pleasure of being included in a community co-sponsorship team of Resurrection members who recently welcomed a lovely family of 12 originally from the DRC, but more recently from a refugee camp in Tanzania, Africa. Our team, in partnership with resettlement agency Della Lamb, has had an enormous presence with this family and they are certainly garnering a sweet spot in our hearts.
I along with team member, Nancy Mabry, recently set out on an exciting adventure with the family…enrolling the children in school! We started our journey at KCPS’ International Welcome Center! Incredible people like Jami Arreola and Mr. Kadomo welcomed the children with coloring sheets and crayons. Each child, one by one, were screened and enrolled for the rest of this year’s semester and summer school! At the International Welcome Center, there are several worldly languages are spoken including Spanish, Swahili, Pashto, Arabic and so many others. This helped the children feel welcomed, seeing words they know on the walls and spoken in the classrooms. Program Administrator, Ryan Rumpf, gave the children a tour of the facilities along with their “Baba”, their father.
We left the Welcome Center with school information for elementary, middle and high school and also bus route information. Imagine seeing a big, yellow bus for the first time! This family has endured some remarkable things to be able to enjoy the freedoms that sometimes are taken for granted. I am so grateful to the staff and friendly faces we met at the International Welcome Center, the middle school and the elementary school. Each individual an angel cloaked in hospitality and grace. As the family settles in to their new livelihood, I ask you to please keep them in your prayers. Prayers of patience to learning a new language, culture and schedules! Prayers for those big, yellow buses to show up and the drivers who make it happen! Prayers for friendships, neighbors and community. Prayers that their presence in the United States is for the better. Amen!
Have you ever thought of going abroad to serve? Doty would love to connect with you! She has been on serve trips to Malawi & Honduras and has hopes to serve in Uganda & Costa Rica at some point. Her email is: doty.hoffman@gmail.com
GROUP THREE IS LAUNCHED
Thanks Resurrection & Friends
Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) launched their Ambassador Program this past month. Resurrection members & friends make up their first group. The JVS Ambassadors program is a community sponsorship initiative that provides the framework for individuals from civic, social and/or faith-based organizations, charitable organizations, businesses and/or corporations to walk alongside a refugee family for 6 months. Rooted in the JVS core value that all people have intrinsic worth and dignity, the AMBASSADORS sponsorship groups work in collaboration with JVS staff and service providers to engage, encourage and empower people to achieve social, cultural and economic integration in the Greater Kansas City metro area.
Would you like to learn more about forming a group?
Contact Julie Doane. julierdoane@icloud.com / text/call: 314-520-0657
WORLD REFUGEE DAY IN KC
Saturday, June 17
Kansas City's community-wide event is a lot of fun! You don't want to miss it. We'll talk more about this at our next monthly team meeting and have volunteer signup link in next month's newsletter. For now plan on Saturday, June 17th, usually it's around 10AM-2PMish. We'll keep you posted!
World Refugee Day is an international day (June 20th) designated by the United Nations to honor refugees around the globe. It's a day dedicated to raising awareness of the millions of refugees worldwide who are forced to flee their homes due to war, conflict and persecution.
The 2023 UN theme - Be a friend to refugees in your community. THANK YOU FOR DOING JUST THAT!