APR 12
By: Hannah Lee, Director of Community Engagement
We asked a few members of our community what the word “community” means to them. Here are a few of the responses we got:
“A sense of belonging.”
“Good friends who are like family- people you can share food with, do life with.”
“Where you feel included, wanted, and loved.”
“What makes a new place feel like a home.”
At Canopy, we believe that community is an essential part of what makes a place truly a home. Without community, the process of building a new life isn’t just difficult, it’s nearly impossible.
So what exactly makes community so important for the households that Canopy helps resettle- and how can you be a part of the community at Canopy?
Many of our households come from collective frameworks, where people are tightly knit and centered in community.
The significant majority of households resettled through Canopy are from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Many of these families are originally from DRC, and many fled there to find safety and lived in the DRC for years- sometimes, over 2 decades- in refugee camps. The DRC is a highly collectivist society, even within refugee camps. Among the Congolese, for instance, the nuclear family is just a small part of what is considered the immediate family, which often includes grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews, and close friends.
This means that almost every aspect of life is done together- from cooking and working to child-rearing.
Now imagine growing up in this type of community- where you, your extended family and close friends live in a tightly-knit circle. For reasons far beyond your control, you are forced to seek refuge in a new country in order to protect yourself and your family, and the United Nations deems that you are in such danger, your family will be in the 1% of refugees resettled. After going through the vetting process, you arrive in Northwest Arkansas- where more than likely, you know absolutely no one outside of your household.
You’ve also just moved from a collective society to an individualistic one. The US is a highly individualistic culture—a society where families often live far apart and neighbors might not even know each others’ names.
Both of these challenges make building a new home in a brand new area extremely difficult- not to mention other barriers such as language and transportation. So how do we help these new households overcome these significant barriers and build community in a place where they don’t know anyone and are not familiar with the culture?
How can a newly arriving family feel at home in a place where they feel alone?
The first step is to make sure every family knows they belong here—and that starts with building relationships.
Canopy works to connect our new families to the community.
We do this in several ways: our Case Managers help new arrivals understand the US and NWA through cultural orientation and hands-on education. Our Co-Sponsor Department is another key component of our work: we pair every household with a mentor or a mentor team. Our mentors are a family’s first friends and serve as community guides for the first 6 months of their arrival in NWA. Our employment team works alongside eligible adults to find gainful employment, which is key in feeling integrated in a new community. Through our Long Welcome, we have doubled down on our efforts to help our new neighbors build new lives here in NWA.
- Our Youth Services Coordinator works to help our children adjust to their new home and make sure parents understand how to navigate the school system.
- We offer ongoing case management to build upon cultural orientation and work toward sustained well-being.
Community is built into the very core of our work—
AND We can’t help our families build community without our Community of Welcome.
Our Community of Welcome is our core group of steadfast supporters who commit to supporting Canopy through a recurring gift. Members give $25 or more a month, or $300 or more each year. That’s right- for the price of eating out just once a month, you can be a Community of Welcome member and tangibly help us welcome refugees to NWA!
So what does your $25 a month (or annual gift of $300/year) really mean for our new neighbors?
In short: so much. Your gift directly helps us fulfill our mission by:
- Helping us ensure all new households have a mentor team to serve as their first friends and community guides
- Contributing to our crisis relief fund, which supports families in the case of a crisis such as Covid-19
- Allowing us to build our storytelling initiative so that we can share stories to educate and inform our community on refugee resettlement
- Helping fund our after-school program for children in Canopy households
- …and so much more!
As Canopy gears up to welcome the most refugees home to NWA this year, we are depending on our Community of Welcome more than ever! Our goal is to add 15 new Community of Welcome members this month!
When you become a member of our Community of Welcome, you’re not just providing ongoing support for refugee families arriving in NWA- you’re also a part of our innermost circle of supporters! As our way of making sure you know how important you are to us, every year you receive brand new perks! This year, our Community of Welcome members will receive:
- An exclusive Canopy ballcap! (new!)
- A limited edition Community of Welcome sticker (new!)
- First access to events like our annual Art of Welcome Gala
- Insider access to Canopy updates through our exclusive Community of Welcome quarterly newsletter (new!)
Help us meet our goal of 15 new Community of Welcome members this month!
Already a member of our Community of Welcome? Help us spread the word! Invite a friend or family member to join our Canopy crew!
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