Please note, our principle editor has left for the month, returning in March! This is a short newsletter accordingly.
In this issue:
- Keeping the Lights On
- You say you want to help!
- Freeze for Food - March 2
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"3rd Wednesday"
Introductory Meeting,
February 20, 7:00-8:30 pm
St. Mark's Lutheran Church
605 Spruce St, 53715
Want to get involved?
Come and learn how you can!
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Keeping the Lights On with Home Supplies.
Christopher, Mary and Su go shopping
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You can help a refugee family get established in Madison! How? By contributing to Open Doors for Refugees. We are a non -profit, all volunteer organization that helps refugees living in the Madison area. One of the ways we help them is with our Home Supplies Program.
Many refugees are on Food Share at least initially. However, Food Share dollars can't be spent on non-food items, and food pantries don't often have personal care items, paper products or cleaning supplies. Refugees do get a small amount of money from our government when they arrive, barely enough to cover basic living expenses until they find work. Often lacking English skills and credentials, the work they find typically doesn't pay well, with nearly all their wages going towards rent and food. So, for the first year that they're here, we help them with our Home Supplies Program, where every month we give each new family $50 worth of paper products and cleaning supplies, and a $50 gift card for personal care products.
We used to solicit product donations from the community, but because of the problems of collecting and storing a multitude of small donations, we now buy all the supplies and deliver them the same day. You can help by donating money or $50 Target gift cards. $50 will supply a family with a months’ worth of either personal care, or paper products and cleaning supplies. A donation of $100 will supply a family with personal care, paper products and cleaning supplies for a month! Your donation will help a family as they become self -sufficient. If you'd like to help, you can make an online donation through our Fiscal Agent, the Center for Community Stewardship here, or send a check or gift card(s) to Open Doors at 1213 N Sherman Ave #104, Madison, WI 53704. Thank you so much for your generosity.
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Do you want to help the refugees who arrive here? We need occasional volunteers in many areas:
- Donation Pickup: People to help pick up donations and get them to the storage unit(s). Donation pickups are usually done on a Tuesday morning or Wednesday evening. We’re frequently looking for people with pickups, or people to ride with them.
- Storage Organizers: We regularly need to people to help organize the incoming household items for apartment setups, cull out donations we can’t use, and to identify what we still need for pending apartment setups.
- Apartment Setup: We often need people to prepare an apartment prior to setup and/or assist with setup. Move-ins and apartment setups almost always happen on weekdays, usually in the mornings, and are often done by noon.
- Move-Ins*: We can use some able-bodied people to move furniture and household items into apartments.
- Drivers*: Help get people to appointments, classes, work or events. Appointments are usually weekdays, others at various times. Driving also requires a driving record check, reliable car, and car insurance.
- Driving Instructors*: Help someone learn to drive. Times are flexible. Driving instruction also requires a driving record check, reliable car, and car insurance.
- Employment*: Help people find a job, fill out a resume, prep for a job interview, etc.
- Event Planning and Prep: We have two or three large events every year, along with several other moderate sized ones, and we can often use help planning and orchestrating them.
- Fundraising: Are you good at grant writing? Can you research grant and sponsorship opportunities, both locally and beyond.
- Graphic Design: About every other month or so we need a little production work.
* Activities with an asterisk * involve personal contact with refugees and require a background check
If you’d like to get involved with Open Doors, the best way to do that is to attend one of the Introductory Meetings on the third Wednesday of each month. One is next Wednesday, February 20, 7:00-8:30pm, at St Mark’s Lutheran Church, 605 Spruce St. We cover a lot of ground, and it’s best to attend if you can, but if you can’t, please contact OpenDoorsVolunteers@gmail.com.
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Brrrrr!
Freeze for Food
on Saturday, March 2
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Would you consider running to raise money for refugees? On Saturday, March 2, 2019, over 300 runners and walkers will amass at Vilas Park to do a 5K walk (children and strollers welcome) or 10 K run, despite freezing temperatures and lingering snowfall. As part of internationally-commemorated Peace Corps Week, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Wisconsin-Madison will again donate funds raised from the event to Open Doors for Refugees.
Last year RPCVs donated $5,533 to Open Doors for Refugees, and during the previous 37 years, they have donated $90,000 to organizations, both domestic and international, which focus on food security. Since the Peace Corps’ founding in 1961, 3,239 alumni from UW–Madison have traveled abroad to serve as volunteers, making the university the No. 2 all-time producer of Peace Corps volunteers. This statistic may account for some of the welcome, whatever the weather, that greets Madison newcomers.
Freeze for Food is looking for volunteers as well as runners and walkers. To sign up to run or walk, click on signup.itsracetime.com, right up to the day of race. To volunteer on or before race day, please sign up here (Sign Up Genius).
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Please note, here are links to all previous newsletters
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Mailing Address
Open Doors for Refugees
1213 N Sherman Ave # 104
Madison, WI 53704
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