by: Hayley Smith, LHI Founder/Director
LHI provides humanitarian aid to refugees, both at home and abroad. This post will focus on the “at home” part of our mission statement. It is post 1 of 3 in a series about our partnership with Granite Education Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah.
A family helps prepare an aid shipment at our warehouse in American Fork, Utah.
I spend a lot of time at our program in Greece, and I always get a kick out of telling our team members, most of whom are European, that we also have a huge warehouse in Utah. Before they ask about the warehouse, they’ll inevitably ask, “Isn’t Utah where [insert stereotype]?” After a brief clarifying lesson about National Parks, green jello with shredded carrots, and filming locations for High School Musical—and how I’m from Texas not Utah—we finally arrive at the absolute best thing about Utah: its passion for refugee work!
Even the smallest volunteers help out!
The state of Utah has long been a champion of refugee resettlement, taking in tens and thousands of refugees from all over the world over the course of several decades, no matter the current overall political attitude towards refugee resettlement. That being said, limited funding is always an issue for all states, and especially challenging for resettlement agencies responsible for putting refugees on their path to integration. This is a huge process that starts with identifying housing, enrolling kids in school, providing adult education, finding employment, and getting set up with basic medical care.
Volunteers help sort through items donated through our Amazon Wishlist.
Refugees are often resettled in low socioeconomic-level neighborhoods in urban centers, bringing a different set of challenges altogether. Take Salt Lake City, Utah for example: 70% of the entire state’s refugee population is resettled within the borders of ONE school district alone—Granite School District in Salt Lake City. This is where our Lifting Hands of Welcome program (operated out of our humanitarian aid warehouse in nearby American Fork) comes into play… Stay tuned to learn more!
In our next post, we will talk about how we got connected with the Granite Education Foundation and how we help underprivileged refugee families that live in the Granite School District.