2022 Reasons to Celebrate

Happy New Year, lunar or otherwise! It’s time to review and celebrate what we accomplished locally in 2022. The following accomplishments were realized through my work with Accompaniment & Sanctuary Coalition Colorado Springs (ASC COS) and with Mobile Clothes. You’re welcome to join us as a volunteer with either organization, or both! See the training info below.

In 2022, we:

Served more than 200 immigrant households through ASC COS, whether through rent or utility assistance, transportation, interpretation, or connecting to local resources.

Welcomed six new U.S. citizens! Volunteers drove clients and/or interpreted for the citizenship interview and exam.

Helped obtain three new Colorado driver’s licenses.

Helped six immigrant families find and/or furnish apartments.

Taught about immigration for five organizations. We provide in-person and zoom classes to help churches and other community groups learn the basics about the immigration system in the US, debunk myths, and learn how to actively support our immigrant communities.

Volunteered at an asylum application clinic for Afghans.

Served as cultural mentors for a refugee family from Honduras.

Appeared in an informational/fundraising video for Lutheran Family Services Refugee & Asylee Services.

Partnered with Witness at the Border’s Journey for Justice.

Wrote and sent more than 300 holiday cards for immigrants in detention.

With Holiday Alegria we collected and delivered 206 gifts for the immigrant community in the Pikes Peak Region, serving 32 families from 9 countries.

Through Mobile Clothes we served 535 immigrants from 18 countries.

ASC COS now has a (small) storage unit! This means that we can accept donations of small furniture (chests of drawers, small bookcases, coffee and end tables, small easy chairs, etc.) and basic household goods (bedding, towels, pots + pans, dishes, glasses, and utensils). Items will remain in storage only until a newly-arrived immigrant family needs them. Turnover has been fast so far! SPECIAL REQUESTS: An Afghan family is looking for a functioning electric clothes dryer. They can pick it up. A Colombian family is looking for a dining table and chairs for a family of 7 (even 6 would be amazing). They can pick it up.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

ASC COS will hold our next volunteer training via Zoom on Friday, Feb. 10th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm. Please RSVP to csaccompaniment@gmail.com to receive the Zoom link. You do not have to speak a second language in order to volunteer with ASC COS or Mobile Clothes. Please feel free to spread the word about this training to anyone you think might be interested.

The Gospel Initiative, a new program at Denver Seminary, is hosting an event titled “Compelling and Credible Witness: The Church and Immigration” at Denver Seminary on January 27 from 8:00am–2:30pm. From the invitation:

“As the metro Denver area deals with the recent influx of migrants, many churches are facing new challenges and asking new questions. Our conferences are designed as spaces for churches and Christian nonprofits to gather their own leaders to listen, learn, and then decide as a church how they might engage the issue. Guests can ask anonymous questions to the presenters and discuss the issue in small groups. Lunch is provided for in-person guests, and the program is available online. To find out more about the presenters and to register, visit the event page on the Denver Seminary website.” 

Catching Up

Thank you, dear readers, for sticking with me while I haven’t written for so long! I’ve been plenty busy with a variety of immigration work, which I just haven’t been writing about. Here’s a quick summary. If you want to read in more detail about anything in particular, just leave me a comment.

This is a sampling of what I’ve been up to in the past several months, often with the help of my friend Phyllis:

• Welcoming and walking alongside newly-arrived families from Afghanistan, Honduras, and Colombia
• Celebrating news from a Bhutanese friend that he’s now a grandfather
• Celebrating with a friend from Burundi that he and his wife are now U.S. citizens
• Teaching an Immigration 101 workshop
• Working with Mobile Clothes, receiving donations, organizing and sorting donations, filling and delivering orders, applying for grants, and shopping for supplies
• Representing ASC COS at two public events: “Becoming Americans,” a film and speaking engagement by a Vietnamese refugee and immigrant raising funds for Ukrainian refugees, and the Youth Documentary Academy premiere of several films made by young documentarians, including an immigrant and a refugee who made films about their experiences
• Continuing work with ASC COS, where we’ve recently welcomed a new member church, and we’ve hired our first employee, a part-time dispatcher!
• Volunteering at an asylum application clinic for Afghans
• Helping friends apply for work permits
• Participating in a virtual Migrant Trail Border Encuentro, learning from several people who live and work on the border
• Visiting the zoo at least four times with immigrant families
• Celebrating birthdays
• Visiting several local parks with immigrant families
• Helping find housing for a family and helping them move twice, including gathering and delivering furniture and houseware donations, connecting utilities, and filling out change of address forms
• Delivering a sewing machine
• Attending the CIRC (Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition) annual assembly

I’m sure there’s more, but you get the idea. As I mentioned, thanks for hanging in there through my radio silence, and please stay tuned—I have a couple of posts in the works focusing on book recommendations. Feel free to leave a comment if you’re interested in more details about any of the above.

ASC and You Shall Receive

If you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you may know that I’m a founding member of the Colorado Springs Sanctuary Coalition. But did you know that we’ve recently expanded our mission to include accompaniment of local immigrants who are not living in sanctuary? After extensive listening sessions and a months-long pilot program, in February 2020 we officially launched the Accompaniment side of our Coalition. We are now ASC COS (Accompaniment and Sanctuary Coalition Colorado Springs), an official 501(c)3 organization. We currently have 80 trained volunteers who speak eleven different languages in addition to English!

The idea for Accompaniment was originally to walk alongside immigrants, connecting them to local resources, offering rides and interpretation, and literally accompanying them—to courts, doctors, and other appointments. Then covid hit. Many immigrants working in service and hospitality jobs lost their work and needed financial assistance as well, something we had not originally planned to offer. So ASC COS upped our game to serve immigrants in our community. Check out the infographics to learn how ASC responded to covid, and continues to support our immigrant neighbors.

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This week ASC COS is hosting an online fundraising auction, featuring services, artwork, and handmade items. Though you can find great bargains there, please consider another way of shopping. Think about how much you would like to donate to ASC, and bid accordingly. For example, if you want to donate $50, $100, or more, consider upping the bid significantly on an item you could otherwise claim for less. All the proceeds directly support local immigrants. Check out the auction here: https://go.eventgroovefundraising.com/asc-auction Bidding ends Saturday at midnight, so don’t delay!