One of our roles as Knoxville's only refugee resettlement agency is to find affordable housing for our arriving refugee families. This task comes with unique challenges. One of these unique challenges is the rental agreements and city ordinances that require our refugee families to take care of the yard of their rental property.
We receive a lot of refugee families--many of whom are single mother with young children--who:
- Have no cultural knowledge of how to use a lawn mower or do yard work,
- Do not have the necessary equipment to do yard work, and
- Have young children and cannot leave these children alone to get out in the yard for an hour or so to do the yard work.
There are opportunities in the Spring, Summer, and early Fall months for volunteers to help us meet the yard work needs of our refugee families and single mothers. This is also a great opportunity for groups that can serve refugee families through cutting grass, pulling weeds, raking leaves, and general yard clean-up.
Special Requirement: The volunteer would need to be able to provide their own lawn equipment and get it to and from the property, since the families do not own any equipment.
If this is an opportunity you or a group you are associated with are interested in helping us with, please reach out to me at pgreen@bridgerefugees.org!
