Writing the Book on Refugee Resettlement
I am writing a book, a how-to guide, on refugee resettlement. Today someone asked me how I got involved in writing the book. As I replied to her email I thought this might make a good post to the blog.
I have worked with refugee families since 2001. Our first family arrived on September 7. They were living in our house when the events of 9/11 unfolded. While we didn’t have a common language at that point we could understand the concern that the war had followed them from home. Trying to offer some comfort, I pulled out a map of the U.S. and showed Wisconsin and showed New York. Not that any U.S. citizens were feeling good at that time, but we did what we could to settle the nerves of our guests.
Just a month or two before that I pulled together a team at our church in Waukesha, Wisconsin. We were working with Lutheran Social Services. Since then we’ve helped 5 more families directly, have acted as an anchor for 3 families (2 sponsored by other churches), and have contributed efforts to many other refugee families arriving in the area. I have spoken to a number of different churches to get them involved. Our group has been recognized for its efforts as we’ve had a very successful program.
One thing that we’ve seen with other churches is high levels of stress and chaos among the volunteers. It occurred to me that we do things well and we’ve got somewhat of a system worked out. Therefore this should be communicated to others. I was inspired to write a book in hopes that volunteers all over the country would have a resource they could follow. And, with proper positioning perhaps we can even get more people involved in this worthwhile endeavor. My goal is that by 2030 my efforts are directly and indirectly responsible for 10,000,000 refugees finding home!
I’ve seen you relaxing with your family so I know your work and extras don’t take up all your time and yet I wonder…..Just know I am incredibly proud to be your Aunt. You are an amazing man.