Lutheran Services Carolinas is teaming up with Mission Charleston to support the Afghan refugees coming to the region, and the organizations are asking for help from local churches.
There are an estimated 175-200 refugees expected to come to the Charleston area. LSC and Mission Charleston need to recruit 15 churches in the area to come to the table with volunteers to assist in the refugees’ assimilation and form a “Circle of Welcome.”
The Circle of Welcome is a Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) initiative designed to engage both faith and community groups in the successful integration of refugees into communities in the United States. This initiative is anchored in a close partnership between Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS), LSC, and volunteer teams from faith and community groups.
The goals of the program are to:
- Improve outcomes for refugee families arriving in the U.S. by engaging faith and community groups and local resettlement agencies in shared resettlement and integration work across the country;
- Enhance the longer-term integration and not just short-term stabilization for newly arrived refugees;
- Create meaningful and simple ways for faith and community groups to engage with and walk alongside refugees in service and friendship.
Churches who are interested in this support opportunity are invited to attend an in-person training with Lutheran Services Carolinas Director of Refugee and Immigrant Services Bedrija Jazic on Thursday, Sept. 30. The training will be held from 1-3 p.m. at Portside Baptist Church, located at 1179 Remount Rd., North Charleston, SC 29406.
To register for the training, visit https://missionchs.org/register-training
For more information on Mission Charleston visit www.missionchs.org
For more information on Circle of Welcome, visit http://lscarolinas.net/circle-of-welcome/
