The Refugee Resettlement Initiative - ACTION NEEDED
Major Gratitude! Temple Beth Shalom in conjunction with Jewish Family Services and the Shapiro Foundation has welcomed our first Ukrainian woman to be a teacher at our very own Children’s Center. Volunteers jumped into action to raise funds, donate items and offer their time to welcome her on May 4th. Watch her arrive at Logan on local CBS News (minute 9:15)
We are very fortunate to be one of the pilot institutions hiring immigrants through the U4U Labor Pathways Program. According to our partners at JFS “Uniting for Ukraine provides a pathway for Ukrainian citizens and their immediate family members who are outside the United States to come to the United States and stay temporarily in a 2 year period of parole. Ukrainians participating in Uniting for Ukraine must have a supporter in the United States who agrees to provide them with financial support for the duration of their stay in the United States.”
As part of the Uniting for Ukraine initiative, The Shapiro Foundation, Alight, Social Finance, Kuja Kuja, Talent Beyond Boundaries, and Miles 4 Migrants are partnering to build a Jobs Sponsorship Program which will match Ukrainians with relevant skills and language to employers with substantial vacant jobs. Thus, the initiative creates a pipeline that predictably delivers large volumes of Ukrainian candidates who meet employers’ needs.
Locally, JFS is working with Bright Horizons Child Care Centers and Temple Beth Shalom Children’s Center. If successful, Temple Beth Shalom could act as a model for not only other Jewish early childhood education centers, but more broadly to other employment sectors around the country. When our small community raises significant funds and offers such strong support, it pushes larger corporations to do better.
To prepare for their arrival, we have built an amazing team of volunteers who are ready to support these women across all facets of their lives -- creating welcoming housing, showing them how to use public transportation, assisting them to acclimate to their new community, helping them access health care, and more. Several of our volunteers are originally from Ukraine and the former Soviet Union and will be able to communicate with the women in Russian. We have received many, many generous donations of household goods and furniture so apartments will be ready when the refugees arrive.
But we aren’t done yet! We have two more women arriving at the end of the month! One will be roommates with our first arrival, but one is coming with her five year old daughter moving into another apartment.
Because of the generosity of our Temple and wider community, the first apartment came together beautifully. To view photos of our great work check out our post on TBS’s Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/tbsneedham
If you want to help with our second apartment, we still have a few more items for it to come together. Volunteers are also going to hold a small toy drive in the coming weeks. To sign up to help with the household items:
In addition, an essential component of being able to support refugees is ensuring we have the financial resources needed to provide initial rental assistance and provide for their basic needs until their work authorization documents come through and they are able to begin working and receiving a pay check. We need to raise at least $20,000 to support the woman and five year old daughter for the time they are not working and for other expenses to help ease their transition.
Please donate to the Refugee Resettlement Fund by visiting the TBS website HERE and choosing the Refugee Resettlement Fund.
Questions? Please email Rob at refugee@tbsneedham.org.
