While many have been terribly affected by COVID and the economic fallout from it, many others of us have not been hurt financially yet we may still receive a Federal stimulus check. If you will get a stimulus check that you don’t really need, please consider supporting the very hard-hit refugee community by giving part of your check to Open Doors, or to one of our partner organizations listed below. Together we can help our newcomers get through this most difficult time.
Open Doors for Refugees
Donation link: https://opendoorsforrefugees.org/financial-support/
We are an all-volunteer organization working to help refugees make a home in the Madison area. Open Doors collects furnishings and sets up apartments for arriving refugees, and provides translation, transportation, ESL, employment, skill building, home supplies, and other services to folks after arrival. In the face of COVID, we have suspended or made many of these services virtual, while instead providing financial support to our clients most in need (we anticipate a return to our traditional services soon as COVID recedes and more refugees arrive). We are solely funded and supported by financial and material donations from the community, and 92 cents of every dollar donated goes to directly to aid refugees. Thank you for your support.
Alternatively, here are our partner organizations that we work with or refer to regularly:
Donation link: https://bit.ly/3nQRzpA
JSS is Open Doors’ primary partner in service to the refugee community. JSS is the sole local official refugee resettlement agency. JSS is an affiliate of HIAS nationally and works closely with the Wisconsin State Bureau of Refugee Programs to offer programming to refugees and asylees from the time they arrive in the US through their first 5 years. JSS programming includes case management and immigration legal services among others. Beyond these, JSS also provides a variety of other services to the entire community, but with the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic, JSS shifted service delivery in real time. The Resettlement and Immigration Legal staff have been helping new immigrants to navigate everything from unemployment benefits to accessing healthcare in the “new normal” that we’re all getting used to.
Catholic Multicultural Center
Donation link: https://cmcmadison.org/donate/
The Catholic Multicultural Center is dedicated to helping our brothers and sisters in need by serving the whole person. The CMC is offering a variety of programs and services remotely or in the parking lot to safely meet people’s most immediate needs during the pandemic: a twice-weekly food pantry including personal hygiene items, a free, hot community meal served seven days a week, bilingual employment search assistance and resource navigation, food pantry delivery, virtual English as a Second Language tutoring, and comprehensive low-cost immigration legal services. We’ve referred many clients to CMC.
Community Immigration Law Center
Donation link: https://cilcmadison.org/donate/
The Community Immigration Law Center (CILC) is a 501 ©(3) nonprofit sponsored by a coalition of legal, social, and faith-based organizations wanting to contribute to the community and to address the unmet legal needs of immigrants in Madison and surrounding areas. CILC has provided immigration assistance to individuals since 2009. We’ve referred many clients to CILC.
Literacy Network
Donation link: https://www.litnetwork.org
Literacy Network improves literacy and English language skills for adult learners by teaching reading, writing, communication and computer skills, and ESL. In Dane County, more than 55,000 adults struggle with low literacy, impacting their children’s education, employment opportunities and quality of life. Adult literacy education makes it possible for our community’s immigrants, low-income and frontline essential workers to achieve their goals. Students work to obtain employment, job promotions, U.S. Citizenship, high school equivalency degrees, continued education and certification, communication skills with health care providers and children’s schools. Throughout the pandemic, students have connected to tutors and fellow students in the virtual classroom and are receiving additional support and connection to resources. Our mission expanded in 2020 as we met the growing need to reduce poverty by moving individuals and their families forward. Our ESL program has partnered with the Literacy Network in the past.
Madison College Foundation
Donation link: https://www.supportmadisoncollege.org/ways-to-give-2/
The Madison College Foundation’s role is to support the College in its mission to provide access to quality education for all and foster learning and success. We work with them extensively in our ESL program.