Hello!

 

OK! This is a long one!  You will want to read it all though because it is exciting stuff!

What a dynamic last couple of weeks we have had!  This past week we had the pleasure of meeting the new Executive Director for the Missoula IRC office and let me tell you folks- we lucked out!  Molly Short-Carr is amazing. She is fun and sassy and energetic and seems like she will fit right in here in Missoula! On top of this she has extensive experience in refugee resettlement as the Executive Director for a resettlement program in Buffalo, NY, and most recently, has experience on the refugee “intake” side while working in Nairobi, Kenya for the past 2 years.  With everything that goes into starting a new program, I have all the faith that this positive, unflappable, and well-spoken woman will do a spectacular job.  I can’t wait for you all to meet her!

On that note, we have had some updates on what the next couple months may bring. It looks like our first few families will be arriving by late August/early September and will most likely be refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo. We are so excited for the arrival of the first family, but realize we have A LOT of work to do in a short period of time. Over the next couple weeks as we continue to learn more about the conflict, culture and people of the DRC, I will be sharing this info with you. We may even have time to have a gathering around these topics and if this is something anyone would like to assist in putting together, let me know…. As I wrote earlier, Molly Short-Carr is coming from working in that area of the world, has extensive knowledge of the situation and will be helping to guide us through this learning.

As August is rapidly approaching, SLM is nailing down our initial programing and I would like to take the time to share some of that with you here.  First and foremost, we officially have a Board of Directors for SLM. Look for their names and biographical information to be posted soon on our website! They are all spectacular and we are so grateful for their participation!

We have formed committees around 1) Education and Outreach 2) Program Development 3) Fundraising and 4) Governance.

The Education and Outreach Committee will focus on interactions with the Missoula (and Montana) community. We will be working on providing educational meetings, cross-cultural trainings and a media plan. This committee will work closely with the IRC to collaborate on outreach and utilize some of their amazing resources for education across the state as well as for volunteers working with refugees. This committee will also continue to support the relationships and work that has previously been started with our city’s leaders, facilities and organizations that will be interacting with refugees.

The Program Development Committee will try to select the most important things for initial focus from our 801 fun ideas.  These programs will focus on assisting refugees to integrate into our community through mentorship and service projects, creating a gathering space to bring Missoulians and refugees together and continuing to organize and begin to harness all of the amazing volunteers. This committee will work closely with the IRC to understand where needs are popping up and collaborate on filling the gaps.  We are especially excited to also pull young people into these programs as many of the refugees will be children and we have gotten a groundswell of interest from Middle School and High School aged kids who want to be a part of this. So amazing.

The Fundraising Committee will begin to put together a more serious and structured fundraising campaign so we can actualize the above goals.  We will begin to work towards 1 full time and 1 part time paid staff positions as a way to create a sustaining organization.

The Governance Committee will help guide the creation of a strong and legally compliant organization as we move forward into a more formal structure.

Why do I tell you all this? Because this is what you all have been waiting for and our success will be highly dependent on amazing supporters and volunteers such as yourselves!

So here are the 3 calls to action….

1) Let me know if you are interested in serving on one of the first 3 committees (minus the Governance one, which you really don’t want to be on anyway! Ha!).  Please specify which committee. We will be asking for serious volunteers for this that will be able to commit to make it to at least 1 meeting a month and volunteer at least 5 hours a month toward committee goals.

2) In conjunction with the IRC, we are looking for volunteers for a Friendship/Mentorship program.  We are hoping to build teams of 5 volunteers for each incoming family that will serve as tour guides, community liaisons, advocates and most importantly- friends.  Since we will most likely be seeing one family at a time, this will start slow and we won’t be able to utilize everyone right away that will want to participate in this. That said, we do want to get 3 teams of 5 set in anticipation of our first 3 families.  This will also involve a longer term commitment to these families.  We want to create some sense of normalcy and security in the storm that will be the first bit of their life here.

3) I’m going to say it.  We need money to help our organization reach its full potential and promote our vision of helping Missoula be a welcoming, supportive and informed community that has the capacity to assist refugees to integrate and thrive.  If this is a possibility for you, please consider a tax deductible donation to Soft Landing Missoula. You can Donate-

1) Through our website

2) By check made out to the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center with Soft Landing Missoula in the memo and sent to P.O. Box 8733, Missoula, Mt 59807 or

3) By cash/check delivered to the storefront at the JRPC at 519 S. Higgins Ave. – again, specify Soft Landing Missoula.

We are so very grateful for you all and look forward to all that is to come!

It is also of note that some amazing volunteers have revamped our website and it looks spectacular so make sure you check it out! Thank you Miranda and Ali!

Ok… You have made it to the end.  Here, I will write my final comments about the beginning… This is it.  We have arrived. The IRC office is here.  We know a more accurate projection for our first families that will be arriving soon. More programs are beginning to take shape. This is the beginning of the hard work, commitment and amazing opportunity we have made a reality.  It now begins and I feel so honored for all of you that have made it a priority in your lives to help families that have been forced to flee horrendous situations and are in need of a safe and welcoming home.  Let’s do this!

Hello!

 

Well, summer is here! I got to spend yesterday in Caras Park at the Missoula Made Fair and I wanted to thank our volunteers that helped staff the Soft Landing booth, and all of the new folks that signed up to learn more us and get involved!  It was a beautiful day and it looks like we have many more of those over the coming week!

Another interesting happening that bears mentioning: Missoula will be visited this week by the Tug collective with a project titled “Who Eats at Taco Bell?”   In their words, Who Eats at Taco Bell? is a socially-engaged-art platform for thinking about how the interlocking dynamics of immigration, social race, and colonialism in U.S.-American history continue to resonate with personal and political notions of movement, belonging, and identity. Their goal with this project is to create a collaborative situation for kindling critical (but accessible) discussion about immigration and racial justice. Although there will be multiple antecedents propelling our project forward, the ultimate vehicle for creating this collaborative framework will be a 2-month expedition on the Lewis and Clark Trail, in the summer of 2016 leading up to the U.S. Presidential Election, making tacos with people with whom we come in contact and activating participation via a multi-sensorial/multimedia installation, all in an effort to seed and extend conversations about what it means to inhabit a place, at this particular point in time.  Wow.  I am excited to meet these guys and hope you will join me at the Frontier Space Gallery this First Friday to welcome them and have conversations, and hear about their cross country exploration!

I also wanted to let everyone know that, although maybe not as creative as the above mentioned event, our first Ally Training was a success!  It was so wonderful to work with NCBI in designing and teaching this short course and I am very grateful for their time and expertise!  The students not only learned a lot, but so did we and it will be a priority moving forward to offer more of these “Ally Trainings” and well as other short courses on topics of diversity and cultural competency.  These are things to look for in the fall!

Almost all of the Soft Landing Board interviews have taken place and we could not be more thrilled for who this has brought to the table.  I think we are going to have a very strong board moving forward- and just in time to help with the endless tasks involved in becoming our own non-profit!  We have been very busy writing by-laws, filling out paperwork, distilling our million ideas into a manageable few to start with and working on fundraising plans- wow- who knew this is what we signed up for?!   Although challenging and time consuming, it is surprisingly interesting and I am thankful to be learning and acquiring new skills 😉  We are still looking for our “home” to run a Community Resource Center and operate our programs out of, so if anyone had any leads, please send them our way!

Ok, ok, so can we get an update on the refugees please?  The IRC’s office plans are moving along nicely and I got the chance to pre-view their new office space a little over a week ago. With a mini-build up, it is really going to be a nice space and even though it is the IRC’s office, I feel such a part of it and hope you all do to.  They have been so wonderful to work with and I continue to feel so lucky that it is the IRC that has landed back in Missoula.  Bob Johnson, with the IRC, will be back in July to check on the construction and start getting it all dialed in.  The new Executive Director for the IRC will be arriving in Missoula from Nairobi in mid-July, the two other positions will be decided then (I think) and the office should be up and running shortly after that.  We are projected to see our first refugees sometime in August or early September.  

Thinking about that, I think about last September when this whole adventure started and I am AMAZED at all we have achieved in just one year!!!!! Can you believe it?  I know we aren’t quite there yet, but I continue to look forward with excitement and gratitude.  

Hello.

I write to you this week with a heavy heart and enormous grief over the recent shooting in Orlando.  I grieve for the LGBT community, especially friends here in Missoula who lost loved ones, and I also grieve for those in our city who have been singled out and targeted due to their faith and heritage, not the actions of decades spent in our community as outstanding human beings.  Both of these things hurt my soul and I have not yet come to a place of understanding.  This attack was atrocious, but it is also a reminder to me the pain and terror that refugees are fleeing every day and only makes our efforts more important.

I give thanks to the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center who is offering at least a small outlet in which to direct our sorrows.

Many of us are carrying grief over the senseless deaths in Orlando and the anti-Muslim rhetoric that we are hearing. In the face of such enormous grief it is hard to know what to do but reach out and love each other. The JRPC is inviting us to join the ladies of the Cranium (who meet every Wednesday to explore and practice origami) this Wednesday at 1:15 pm in the JRPC community room to fold a peace crane for Orlando.  The cranes will be sent in a care package to victims and their loved ones in Orlando as a sign of solidarity, as well as gifted to Muslims in our own community who are being targeted and scrutinized due to this horrible tragedy.  Betsy has informed me that if you can’t make this exact time, you are welcome throughout the day.

In addition to this gathering, please consider writing a letter to the editor in solidarity with the LGBT community and in support of the upstanding Muslims in our community. It is so easy to hear all of the negativity and ill-informed comments that are trying to pit the two groups against each other, and I am sure we will see the Missoulian opinion page inundated with this in the coming days.  Please be a voice of hope, peace and support for both of those communities that exist peacefully here in this city. Here is how…

Letters to the Editor

Letters should be 300 words or fewer, and MUST include your real name, real address, and phone number. While we welcome feedback from anyone, we only publish letters
from within our primary readership area.

Email: oped@missoulian.com

Phone: (406) 523-5215

Toll free: 1-800-366-7186

Fax: (406) 523-5294

p.s. – only your name is published, not your address and phone number.

In SLM news, we have had a super busy and productive last couple of weeks. So busy I am pretty sure I am a week (or three!) behind on getting this newsletter out! Our first Ally Training is in full swing and I am once again so impressed with NCBI and so blessed to be partnering with them for these classes!  We hope to have another training in the fall, and possibly continue our efforts annually, so look for that if you couldn’t participate this go round.

We have traveled across the state, from Great Falls, to Kalispell, to Stevensville and Hamilton, and of course here at home in Missoula, to give talks and seminars on refugees, SLM, and community organizing and activism. This is all a part of our continued outreach effort to prepare our state and community to be a welcoming and inclusive place for refugees to land. We have met so many amazing people wanting to help and I continue to be humbled by other’s stories and commitment.

A recent surge in interest and volunteers has also helped us begin to structure and run some small donation drives for household items, with plans for larger ones once we have a true space to store the items!  Any leads on donated/cheap space anyone?!?!? We hope to start by putting together the apartments for the first 3 families by the beginning of August, knowing that the less the IRC has to spend on “stuff”, the more they can stretch for additional rent, language assistance, and employment help.  We have been so blessed by Rebekah Little stepping up to the plate to help organize this, and any inquiries about donations can go to her at donate@softlandingmissoula.org.  Please consider storing that box of clothes and items you have laying around that you were going to take to Goodwill for the next month or so until we have a space, and let us know if you have any furniture in good to great condition that you are looking for a new home for….

Speaking of storage space, we are also still in the search for the right spot for SLM and our hopes for a resource/community center/lounge….. Just putting it out there 😉

Lastly, we are also in full swing of incorporating into our own non-profit and continue to be ever grateful to the JRPC for their support and guidance, as well as so many in the community with whom we have had some serious “brain picking sessions”! This has been not just a chore, but actually a really great opportunity to enlist help, form an advisory board, and most importantly, really assess our goals and express our true north.  The work is ongoing, and way more fulfilling than I originally anticipated! Molly Cottrell- you are so amazing- thanks for being my right hand wo-man!

The IRC is also visiting again this week to continue to finalize office location and set up with the anticipation of a true opening end of July/early August. Exciting!

So, yes, quite busy but incredibly blessed with so many amazing and gifted people working hard to make all of these things a reality.  Thank you all for your kindness and support to those who need it most in this very difficult time.

Hello!

 

I can’t believe we are already over halfway through May! I am loving this beautiful spring and especially loving seeing it through the eyes of my toddler as he discovers splashing in mud, throwing rocks in the creek and running full tilt across the soft grass to flop down on his belly with huge giggles. This time, and these new activities for us, make me even more excited and thankful for all we have accomplished lately and the certainty that soon we will be able to share these things with children (and adults) who haven’t had the freedom to just flop down in the grass and gaze at the clouds for a long while.

SLM has some really exciting things coming up in anticipation of welcoming refugees into our city soon! First, we are hosting an “Ally” training- Building An Inclusive Community- on June 11th from 9a-noon and June 15th from 6p-9p. It is a 2-part training series that will be facilitated by the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI) Missoula. The series will be an opportunity for community members to come together to increase understanding about the impact of oppression, expand strategies for effective communication and rapport, gain skills for effective leadership, collaboration and advocacy in the community; and to set individual and organizational goals for ensuring a welcoming and inclusive environment for registered refugees coming to Montana via the International Rescue Committee. The cost is $40 and there is a limited number of spots available. We do have a few scholarships available if the cost is prohibitive for your participation. Please email me to sign up!  I think this will be an amazing and critical piece to advance the conversation in our community in order to create the most welcoming environment we can for refugees in Missoula.

We have also initiated a Donation Drive with hopes of fully furnishing 3 apartments for our first few families that will hopefully be arriving by late summer/early fall.  We have many folks in the community excited to create a lovely home for these families and are especially thankful to those who have stepped up to offer leadership and energy to this project!  If this is something that interests you, or you have an item or two you would like to donate, please email Molly (volunteer@softlandingmissoula.org). We are looking for donated storage space for the larger items (beds, couches, etc..) that we will be collecting, so please contact us if you have any thoughts or leads on storage space.  We are also preliminarily looking for office/community center space if anyone has a lead on this or suggestions for us 😉

Many of you know this already (thank you for the interest!) – We are working to put together an advisory board as we work towards receiving our own 501(c)3 non-profit status. If this interests you and you would like to be considered, please contact me and I can send you information on how to “apply”.  We are asking that a “Letter of Interest” along with 3 references be submitted by May 27th and we will start conducting interviews in early June for a decision by the end of June.

In other updates, the IRC has now posted the two positions for a full-time caseworker and part-time finance manager. They would love to fill these positions locally and I encourage you to apply!

So, lots of great things going on!  I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week and can find time to enjoy at least a few moments with loved ones outside in this beautiful spring season!

Hello!

What a couple of great weeks we just had! Visits from Bob Johnson and Robin Dunn-Marcos with the IRC, a wonderful “Thank you!” gathering and an incredible week of education, humor and show of support for our Muslim neighbors organized by SALAM.  I hope you all got a chance to meet some of these wonderful people and attend some of these events.  If not- there will be more to come!  Thank you so much to Anna, Suzy, Kelsey, Georgia, Winnie, Darrin and many others for your fabulous work in making our dessert party happen!

A couple things to keep on your radar for this week…

Soft Landing Missoula will be participating in Give Local which takes place tomorrow, May 3rd! This is a great and simple way to show your support! There are many ways you can donate all over town at all times of the day- and night! Check out the Give Local for donation locations and events…

The Jeannette Rankin Peace Center is hosting a First Friday Award ceremony from 5 to 7 pm to display the artwork submitted for their annual Search for Peace Art Show and meet the winners. Cash prizes will be distributed by Fr. Jim Hogan, the originator of the contest, at 5 pm. Artwork was submitted along the theme of “Welcoming” to allow participants to reflect on the upcoming opening of a refugee resettlement office in Missoula. Representatives from Soft Landing Missoula will be available to answer questions and the community will have the opportunity to write a note of welcome to refugees that will be sent to the new International Rescue Committee Office opening in Missoula. Come enjoy some snacks, have your questions answered, add to a community message of welcome and see the inspiring work of our young people.

I want to end this newsletter with an observation. One of the most incredible things about this whole endeavor is this cosmic “falling in lap” of everything needed. There have been hard days and struggles, but every single time these challenges have been answered by an email, a phone call, a meeting, a post, that has been the perfect path to move forward and renew our mission and goals. This has not been once or twice, but so many times, with each new person involved, with each new meeting.  Whatever force you believe in, the universe and beyond, we continue to make amazing connections that are being pulled together to make serving refugees and our community a reality.  We are so excited to continue to cultivate these relationships and plan for our future in helping people fleeing war and terror to thrive in our city! Thanks for joining us!!!

Hello!

Welcome to our first newsletter! There are some pretty exciting things happening and we wanted a better way to keep everyone up to date and engaged so we will now be sending out a biweekly newsletter. 

So- Hooray!  As you know, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) is moving forward with opening a resettlement office in Missoula and things are on track to welcome our first refugees by this summer!  Thank you so much to everyone who has been involved to date – how ever large or small. From writing letters, to being a compassionate ear for someone with concerns, your combined efforts forged this success.

Now the real work begins!  For the past month, Soft Landing Missoula has been focusing our efforts on laying a strong organizational foundation for moving forward as we start to transition into our new role supporting the IRC and other Missoula organizations, institutions, and community members to welcome refugees so that they won’t just be able to survive here, but to THRIVE.  I know many of you would like to participate even more and I am thankful for the patience you have had while we have labored on the initial groundwork.  Look forward to many more volunteer opportunities in the near future to help us make this happen! We will be beginning to take on the structure of a true 501(c)3 non-profit (we are currently recruiting board members if this is something that excites you!) and are so thankful for the Jeanette Rankin Peace Center for their guidance through this process and for being our incubator!

Please join us for our event this Thursday, April 21st to celebrate our progress and look toward our future.  The IRC will give a brief update of news on their end and I will speak to SLM progress and projects.  We will also have a few guest speakers and some wonderful poetry. Oh!  Did I forget to mention desserts and coffee!? The event will be from 6-8 at St Paul Lutheran Church, with the speaking engagements starting around 6:30 and plenty of time to get involved in wonderful conversation and put faces with names! 

The following week, April 25-30th, Standing Alongside America’s Muslims has put together some amazing events for “Celebrate Islam Week” and we hope you will join them for some of those as well!  See attached flyer.

I want to again take a moment to reflect on how thankful I am for all of you.  I shouldn’t be surprised, but your work and support has been jaw dropping and this would not be happening without you.  I am so honored and proud that you are on this journey with us.