Help Bridge Refugees Welcome New Refugees to Knoxville
Are you looking for a fulfilling volunteer opportunity? Well, look no further! We are looking for Community Assistance Teams (CATs) to help us welcome arriving refugee families to Knoxville. Newly arriving refugee families are the main focus of this program, but there are opportunities to work with families that have already arrived in Knoxville and could use some additional help.
A CAT is a group of 7-15 or more individuals that will partner with Bridge and partner with a refugee family. You will walk beside the family for six months, help welcome them to the community, and assist the family with their integration in Knoxville.
Some specific ways CATs assist families include the following:
· Apartment set-up
· Welcoming the family at the airport
· Preparing a culturally appropriate hot meal for the family’s arrival
· Purchasing culturally appropriate groceries to stock the refrigerator and cabinets
· Transportation to and from appointments
· Community orientation guides to help the family learn the culture and the
community
· ESL assistance
· Deliveries to the family
· In-kind donations of household goods
In addition to these practical needs above, arriving families need community. These families left everything and everyone they know, often coming to Knoxville not knowing anyone. CAT can offer a community to welcome these families to the area and build new relationships these families so desperately need.
If this sounds like something you would like to be part of, contact:
Peter Green
pgreen@bridgerefugees.org
