We want to introduce you to and welcome the newest member of our team, the amazing Sophia Bay! Many of you have seen her smiling face in the office as she braves the chaos of coming on board at SLM and we are thrilled to have her around as our new Director of Development and Communications.  She brings a unique background of non-profit and social enterprise work to our team and is already certainly the reason for our spiced up IG posts! Welcome Sophia! We are so excited to have ya! 

Did you get a chance to play Futpong at the World Refugee Day soccer tournament and community celebration? During Sunday Streets you will have another opportunity to take part in this awesome game and while learning more about Soft Landing Missoula. 

Sunday Streets is an annual event put on by Missoula in Motion to celebrate the community’s walkability and bikeability! On Sunday, September 9th Higgins Street will be closed for folks of all ages and abilities to take part in fun activities, learn about local businesses, and gather more information about our community. 

Soft Landing Missoula will be located next to the Futpong court with information about refugees and resettlement in Missoula. Come say hi and play or watch a round of Futpong! We can’t wait to see you all there celebrating the livability of our wonderful community! 

• When: Sunday, September 9th 12:00pm-4:00pm 
• Where: Higgins Avenue- From the XXXX’s to 5th Street
• Free and open to everyone! 

Futpong is tennis with your feet and or other parts of your body excluding of course your hands and arms. Played on a 12’ by 6’ court with a net, recommended footwear is sneakers. Futpong can help you hone in on your soccer skills or just get out and try a fun new game! For more information on Futpong:

• Check out the  Futpong website   
• See a Futpong tournament in action by checking out the video page
• Connect with Futpong on the Futpong Facebook page

Join us at the Top Hat on September 16th at 5:30 pm for a special edition of Soft Landing Missoula’s United We Eat supper club! September’s supper club will be one of many events during the third week of September as part Welcoming Week! Tickets here: http://bit.ly/2x1cYFf

Welcoming Week is a nationwide, annual event that brings together immigrants, refugees, and U.S.-born residents in a spirit of unity to build strong connections across the community and affirm the benefits of welcoming everyone – including new Americans. Missoula will be celebrating Welcoming Week for the second year in a row with a series of community building cultural events! A schedule and information about how you can participate in all the weeks events here.

The Soft Landing Missoula Supper Club aims to introduce the incredible culinary talent of Missoula’s newest neighbors and international residents, whose rich and flavorful cooking traditions provide a cultural bridge and enrich our shared community. September’s supper club will feature Middle Eastern cuisine made by three Missoula families from Iraq and Syria. 

Where: The Top Hat, 134 W Front St, Missoula, MT 59802

When: Sunday September 16th.  Doors open at 5:30pm and appetizers will be served at 6:00pm

Cost: Eat: $40/person Give: $60/person Love: $80/person

When you pay you will have the option to: Eat: $40 for a delicious family style dinner, where a portion of the cost covers ingredients and staff time, and the rest goes to the guest chef. Give: $60 gets you the same delicious dinner, but with an additional $20 going directly to the guest chef. Love: $80 gives an additional $40 directly to the guest chef to collectively make this an unforgettable evening! All levels are welcome and appreciated!

How:

• Go to the Top Hat box office to purchase tickets 
• Tickets available online at the Top Hat’s website
• or call the Top Hat at  (877) 987-6487 

FB event to share here!

Please direct any further questions to megan@softlandingmissoula.org

Join us at 6:00 PM on July 29th to enjoy Missoula’s tastiest club!

The Soft Landing Missoula Supper Club aims to introduce the incredible culinary talent of Missoula’s newest neighbors and international residents, whose rich and flavorful cooking traditions provide a cultural bridge and enrich our shared community.

This month’s supper club will feature Eritrean food made by our incredibly talented Guest Chef Abebech Alomu! Eritrean cuisine has similarities to it’s neighboring regions such as Ethiopia, but has a truly unique and bold blend of flavors that make it unlike anything you have tasted before. After dinner is finished, Abebech invites you to take part in the traditional Eritrean coffee ceremony featuring hand-roasted green coffee beans.

Payment will be collected after the meal, but when you pay you will have the option to: Eat: $40 for a delicious family style Iraqi dinner, where a portion of the cost covers ingredients and staff time, and the rest goes to the guest chef. Give: $60 gets you the same delicious dinner, but with an additional $20 going directly to the guest chef. Love: $80 gives an additional $40 directly to the guest chef to collectively make this an unforgettable evening! All levels are welcome and appreciated!

Where: Masala – 206 W. Main St., Missoula

When: Sunday July 29th.  Doors open at 5:30pm and food will be served at 6:00pm

Cost: Eat: $40/person Give: $60/person Love: $80/person

How: Call Masala at (406) 926-6444 to make a reservation

Please direct any further questions to megan@softlandingmissoula.org!

This year Soft Landing Missoula will have a booth at the Western Montana Fair! We are very excited to showcase some talented chefs who will bring Iraqi cuisine to the fair! We will be relying on our wonderful volunteers to help us make this happen! This is a great way to help food entrepreneurship happen! With this booth, we hope to provide chefs with the opportunity to get experience selling their food, generating some income, and sharing their culture with the Missoula community. 

Check out the sign up for the fair and see if any of the times work for you. This is a great volunteer opportunity to do alone or with a group of friends or family! 

We hope you can join us for this fun week full of food! 

Photos by: David Clumpner

Month of Action…

So far, mid-June through now has been a month of action.  With so much happening on the national and state level, our brains- and hearts- have been busy trying to figure out what is Soft Landing’s place in the conversation, and ACTION, surrounding immigrant families being separated at our southern border, increased racial profiling happening across the country and at our northern border- I mean our state folks!, and the travel ban being upheld by the Supreme Court.  After thoughtful deliberation, our voice and our thoughts were captured in an op-ed written by our staff and board that was featured in the Missoulian. While using our voices is essential, here are a few of the other things that have happened and are going on that you can join us in getting involved in.

–Montanans for Immigrant Justice is leading the charge on organizing marches and events that we have helped with and attended, with more to come. 

-We have signed on to 5 letters with the ACLU of Montana outlining clear and feasible ways that our elected officials can take action to change inhumane federal immigration policies.

-We are sharing information presented by the International Rescue Committee in Missoula that was put together through a grant with New American Economy about the economic impacts and benefits of immigrants in our communities.

-And we continue to work every day to assure that refugees and immigrants in our own community feel welcome and supported in reaching for their dreams- as in the case of Ammar Omar from Iraq and the new catering business, Arabian Cuisines, he recently opened, with a bit of help from us and huge heart and tenacity from him! 

Whether participating in a march, writing a letter to the editor and/or our elected officials, supporting the small businesses of refugees and immigrants in our community who after a short time are already contributing to our economy, or any of the other volunteer opportunities that I will list below, there is plenty to do my friends.  My final advice, as if you asked!- don’t get overwhelmed.  Do what you can.  Don’t let the hugeness of it all paralyze you. Persist. Even if it feels small, you are joining your voice and adding strength to the thousands (probably millions!) of others fighting all across our nation for the humane treatment of families, of people, of human beings.

In love and gratitude,

Mary

ps… Save the date for July 29th- our next Monthly Supper Club.  More details to come soon and we aren’t quite ready to open the flood gates of reservations (the last one filled in under an hour!), but know that it will be Eritrean food at Masala on the 29th of July.  Exciting!

Work directly with refugee families in Missoula!!!

One of the most impactful, meaningful, and personal ways you can become involved in creating a welcoming home for refugees arriving in Missoula- from minute one- is to join a Family Mentor team through the International Rescue Committee.  More info on how to do this and what is included can be found here. More families are currently arriving in Missoula and the need for volunteer Mentors is HIGH so it is likely you will get placed with an incoming family right away!
Here is an additional look at the perspective of a Family Mentor Team from a Missoulian Op-ed on the 4th of July.

Be a part of the amazing cultural experience that is SLM’s Farmers’ Market Booth!

We are looking for a couple more volunteers to round out our remaining Saturdays at the Farmers’ Market.  This is super fun folks with many ways you can be involved; you don’t even have to talk to anyone if you don’t want, just help us set up, take down, and transport our booth items! or be a Chatty Cathy and operate the till for the morning- your choice!

Are you brave 😉 Wanna drive with a refugee student driver?

We have many students currently with Learner’s Permits who we are looking to pair with experienced drivers for practice behind the wheel.  The folks who have been doing this for us for the last year LOVE it but we have more students than drivers right now.  Help us continue the growth of this very successful program that is a HUGE step in refugees achieving self-sufficiency and greater economic and social mobility in Missoula.  You must be willing to use your own vehicle.  For more info, contact Molly Cottrell at molly@softlandingmissoula.org

Host Families Needed for Mid to Short term stays for Students attending ELI programs this summer.

The University of Montana’s English Language Institute (ELI) is providing two exciting opportunities to become a host family! More information from ELI can be found here.

Soft Landing Missoula is in search of volunteers for our farmer’s market booth! This unique and fun volunteer position provides the opportunity to help refugee vendors sell their food and share their culture! We ask that volunteers commit to two Saturday mornings a month to help us at the market! We are also in need of help setting up and taking down the booth. We have shifts available in order to work with your schedule! We hope you will join us! 

If you are interested in volunteering at the market, please send an email to megan@softlandingmissoula.org. 

We are also looking for volunteers to fill short (or long!) slots at out food booth at Western Montana Fair this year- August 7th-12th, 10a-10p.  Please also indicate if this is something you are interested in knowing more about!

We are often asked how to get directly and meaningfully involved in the lives of families arriving in Missoula, MT, and therefore want to share an incredible opportunity to do so- becoming a family mentor volunteer with Missoula’s local resettlement agency, the International Rescue Committee. 

Family mentor teams are paired with families and serve as important connections to the Missoula community. As families continue to arrive in Missoula, family mentors are needed. The International Rescue Committee hosts trainings on the third Wednesday of every month from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm at their office. Mentor teams are great to do individually, with a partner, or with a group of friends! For more information on how to get involved go to:

• The International Rescue Committee website with information on family mentor teams.
• The International Rescue Committee Facebook event page for the next training on July 18th. 

” I have been on two family mentor teams through the International Rescue Committee and the experiences have been life-changing. These families bring so much light into my life and they have taught me so much. My relationship with the families has developed into a lifelong friendship and I couldn’t be more grateful.” 

-Family Mentor volunteer with the International Rescue Committee

***Here is an additional look at the perspective of a Family Mentor Team from a Missoulian Op-ed on the 4th of July 2018