Happy New Year! I am so excited to share that ICSJ’s Refugee Ministry is starting off strong in 2025 with a new financial co-sponsorship for a family resettling in the Chicago area.
You may remember at the end of last year, we collected items for a family of six who recently resettled in West Rogers Park. We also connected the family with “New Neighbors” from our very own ICSJ parish community, Dan and Kim Stolze and Jaime and Maria Valle, to help them get settled into their new life in Chicago! These efforts are through our partners at Exodus World Service who support newly resettled families with many supportive services like home furnishing, ESL classes, tutoring, and facilitating social connections between Chicagoans and their program participants. Exodus World Service works with other local agencies who work to resettle the families that eventually enter EWS’s program. One of these agencies is Refugee One.
This month, we are financially co-sponsoring the resettlement of a refugee family through Refugee One with the generous donations we have collected from our ICSJ community over the years. Over the next six months, we will be getting updates on the family we have helped sponsor as they settle into their new home and life in Chicago! To learn more about Refugee One and the good work they do, check out their website: https://refugeeone.org .
If you are interested in ways to contribute to our refugee ministry, we have several avenues for you to get involved!
Purchase one of the items on our Welcome to America Pack Amazon list.
Get on our “Call List” for volunteers to set up new apartments for resettling families using our collected items from the Welcome to America Packs.
Become a New Neighbor through Exodus World Service and accompany a newly resettled family through their first months in Chicago.
Donate money to our Refugee Ministry fund for family resettlement co-sponsorship through Refugee One.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you have about the Refugee Ministry or to get involved!
Peace, Elly
erodriguez@icsjparish.org