“What do you do here?” I have had this question posed to me several times lately while working in our IAFR Fort Morgan office. It’s about as reasonable and straightforward of a question as I can possibly get, yet I still need to figure out my best answer, because it is difficult to encapsulate in one quick response.
Our team’s current mission statement is this: “IAFR Northern Colorado accompanies people who have experienced forced displacement through survival, recovery, and integration. We support existing efforts, make connections with resources, and find creative solutions in collaboration with people who have experienced forced displacement, church communities, and community organizations.”
Here’s an attempt at getting this down to one sentence, specific to our drop-in office: We simply aim to be a friend and support to those who may have at some point experienced forced displacement from their country of origin, providing a space where they are welcome to stop in for a chat or to request assistance with whatever questions or issues they might have.
Here are some recent examples of what I’ve been doing while in the office:
Lots of greetings with people walking by
Assistance with the paperwork to register a child for citizenship who was born abroad
Several online job applications at two different meatpacking plants
A follow-up phone call regarding a job application at one of those plants
Checking the status of a travel document application that was submitted 12 months ago
Various conversations about immigration petitions for relatives overseas
Conversations about our Wayfinders program, which facilitates one-on-one ESL learning relationships
Providing contact information for other local service organizations
Working on ESL lesson prep (and lots of emails, of course) when not meeting with someone
We have someone working in the office three or four partial days each week. My current contribution is typically five hours on Wednesday afternoons and most Saturdays from 10:00am until 2:30pm, at which time I transition to ESL lessons in the same space.
What will the next conversation bring? I just don’t know, but I hope to provide a sense of welcome, an encouraging or helpful word, and maybe a glimpse of Jesus in some way.