Immigrant Solidarity Team

The Immigrant Solidarity Team is concerned with helping immigrants and refugees to adjust to life in the United States. We work with local organizations to achieve this goal, including the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and RefugeeOne. We also engage in legislative advocacy and learning opportunities for the congregation. The IST welcomes all who are interested in working to build a better world for immigrants in the United States. We meet on the 3rd Saturday of the month at 4:00pm. At present we are meeting on ZOOM. Contact Maggie Wilson or Michelle Novak through REALM or at admin@ucevanston.org.

The Immigrant Solidarity Team (IST) works to establish and nurture long-term partnerships with local immigrant communities and organizations. UCE seeks to:

Provide appropriate resources for their unmet needs,
Be a useful connector among organizations, and
Educate and mobilize UCE members about immigration related events, projects and actions.

The IST has recently expanded its work to include the support of refugees as well. Here are some of our most recent projects:

In the summer of 2021 the IST encouraged UCE members to donate backpacks and gym shoes for refugee children by partnering with Refugee One.
In the fall of 2021 we sponsored a film viewing and discussion of La Bestia, a film about the dangers refugees face trying to travel from southern Mexico to the US border.
In the fall of 2021 and winter of 2022 our refugee team has raised over $10,000 to help a Syrian refugee family pay their rent. Some of the rent money was funded from the UCE Endowment.
In the winter of 2022 we have also begun to help out a family from Afghanistan as well.
Prior to the pandemic, members assisted with voter registration after citizenship swearing-in ceremonies in Chicago

Updates from Immigrant Solidarity Team

Chalice House Success: June 12, 2020

You may have heard about Chalice House from previous articles in the newsletter. It is a house owned by Countryside Church in which asylum seekers will live while they await determination of their application for asylum. The UCE Endowment Committee approved an Immigrant Solidarity Team application for $1,800 to support these efforts. We are very grateful to have had a chance to help with these efforts.

Here is their letter announcing the readiness of the house and thanking us for our support:

Dear Reverend Eileen and Joe, 

We are delighted to let you know that Chalice House is now ready for its new residents!  While we had hoped to celebrate with you in person, instead please enjoy watching the transformation in this video:  Chalice House.

Literally hundreds of repairs and improvements have been made over the past couple of months. As you may know, due to Covid-19 restrictions, we had a smaller team do most of the work, but UCE along with many, many people and organizations also contributed by donating time, talent, furnishings, supplies and funding.     

Please extend our gratitude and share this good news with everyone at UCE. Your early interest and enthusiasm for the project helped us build momentum, and the 2020 financial support is greatly appreciated. 

ICDI is now taking steps to match Chalice House with a family who needs housing while they seek asylum in the United States. We will share more just as soon as we can.

More information about Chalice House is available here, and as always, if you have any questions or ideas for us, please don’t hesitate to contact us at ChaliceHouse@ccuu.org.

Gratefully,

Laura Mandell and Christine Organ
Co-Chairs, Chalice House

June 12th, 2020|Categories: Immigrant Solidarity|

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