New community-based refugee resettlement approach successful so far in Bend

Think Out Loud

Traditionally, refugees from around the world who are accepted into the United States receive aid from one of a handful of refugee resettlement agencies. But a new approach is aimed at helping create more capacity to better support refugees in American communities and to help more of them escape violence and persecution in their countries of origin. Last year, Amy Kasari, a pastor at the Antioch Church in Bend, heard a radio story about how local sponsor groups were needed to welcome families into specific communities for a program called Welcome Corps. She said she immediately went to work putting together a local team of volunteers at her church.

It took about a year of preparation, but earlier this year, she and other members of the sponsor group welcomed Maria Del Carmen Chaparro, her husband and two of their three adult children, who escaped violence in Colombia. Kasari and Del Carmen Chaparro join us to talk about the process of preparing for and settling into a new community. Una Bilic also joins us to share more about how this new approach is working around the country and what she sees as the impact of Welcome Corps now and in the future.