Keeping the Spirit of Welcome Alive

Even with limited funding, our Welcome Centers and field offices in Baltimore, San Antonio, and Fargo are finding new ways to continue the vital work of welcome.

The Baltimore Welcome Center was established in 2023 to serve as a “one-stop shop” where refugees can find help accessing English classes, job skills training, medical care and benefits assistance, help obtaining work authorization, cultural orientation, and more.

“When we were introduced to Global Refuge, the agency was the answer to our prayers,” says Marie, who arrived in Baltimore from Haiti. “In a very short time, our situation changed for the better.”

The San Antonio Welcome Center opened in 2022. Like Baltimore, it provides comprehensive resettlement services, including a career advancement program launching this summer in partnership with United Way.

For someone like Valentina, who immigrated to San Antonio from Venezuela, getting promoted at work — as both she and her husband have done — is critical to achieving self-sufficiency. “Global Refuge has become our adoptive family,” she says, “the family that we needed to get ahead.”

And in Fargo, Global Refuge clients have transformed an empty lot into a bountiful community garden growing healthy, organic produce popular in their home countries. String beans, eggplant, Aleppo peppers, and more give our new neighbors access not only to nutritious produce but also to a comforting taste of home and a sense of community.

These centers are in communities where we’ve built strong, lasting relationships—and these connections are helping us find new ways to carry out our mission, despite funding cuts. With the strong support and commitment of local communities, our teams continue to help families find their footing and build stable lives in their new homes.

If you live near one of our field offices, please reach out to see how you, your community, congregation, or company can help on a local level. Donations to our field offices help families with essential items like food assistance, transportation to doctor’s appointments, laundromat costs, professional clothes for job interviews, and so much more.

Also, please consider opening your schedule and your heart to volunteer. Even something as simple as giving a mom a ride to the supermarket goes a long way in filling our mission to make our new neighbors feel welcome.

As a Baltimore Welcome Center volunteer recently said, “There’s such a sense of fulfillment when you know you are helping individuals accomplish the American dream.”