Last Monday, Open Doors hit another milestone, setting up its 75th apartment for incoming refugees.
A Quick Look at What Goes Into Setting Up an Apartment
- The Donations Team picks up furniture and household donations from Madison citizens.
- The Warehouse Team takes in these donations and organizes them among a warehouse for furniture and another for housewares.
- A housing coordinator from Jewish Social Services (JSS) informs us of an incoming refugee family.
- Housing coordinators from JSS work to find a suitable living space from their network of landlords, secure it, then provide us the keys.
- A volunteer from the Move-in Team puts together a floor plan of the space. The Warehouse Team uses that to select furnishings and packs up housewares for the apartment that are catered to the needs of the incoming family.
- On move-in day, the Move-in Team rents a truck, picks up the gathered together furniture and housewares from the warehouses, delivers them to the apartment, and sets up the heavy furniture.
- Meanwhile, the Setup Team cleans the apartment where needed and organizes and decorates the kitchen, bathrooms, and living spaces to create a warm and inviting home.
- Once setup is completed, Open Doors takes photos of the now-furnished home. The keys are returned to JSS, who perform a final check on the newly furnished home.
May 9th’s setup team included two new volunteers. If you’d like to volunteer, head on over to our Volunteer page to learn how.
Since the crisis in Afghanistan began, the number of incoming refugees has greatly increased. We expect this trend to continue.
It feels very good to be helping in this difficult time.
Sherri, ODFR Setup Team Co-Lead
The following Friday, Open Doors set up a home for an Afghani family of 9, the largest family this organization has served to date.