City of Refuge

**Staffing Update!!** Lauren Tyler has joined our team as the new manager for Safi Sana! She is supporting our employees by providing a positive work environment and teaching essential job skills. She is looking forward to providing more job opportunities and connecting with the community that supports our friends through Safi Sana's services!... Welcome to the team, Lauren! Leave her some love in the comments! If you are interested in getting a quote for a home or business cleaning, contact her here!: https://rb.gy/khahif

THANK YOU Skylark Bookshop! Over the last few months, they have been taking donations from the community for our refugee students. This past week, we visited the store and chose books that represented them - at no cost! Their faces lit up when they found stories with heroes who looked like them. This has been a treasure and we are so grateful for Skylark's support.

Congratulations, Heather, for winning the COMO Magazine Impact Volunteer of the Year! Heather has been a beloved advocate at City of Refuge for many years and spends her time with our Eritrean refugees. She teaches them English, drives them to the doctor, and helps them with everyday tasks that can be difficult to accomplish in a new culture. But most of all, Heather is a dear friend and an important part of their community. We are so grateful for all of the time and care she gives to our Eritrean Refugees. If you know Heather, please leave her a shoutout in the comments! Full article here: https://comomag.com/2020/10/30/impact-como-2020/

We're so excited to be participating in CoMoGives this year! You can pledge your time and talents for City of Refuge, or any of the other amazing non-profits, at https://comogives.com/!

Many of our friends are voting for the first time this year! For most of our refugee families that are now citizens, the concept of voting used to be far down their list of priorities while adapting to life in the US. As families are progressing and becoming more adjusted to our community, they are more interested in voting and exercising their rights as Americans! This is giving us an opportunity to explain voting and political parties in a neutral way. We are very proud of the way they are realizing how important it is to vote as an America citizen and taking initiative. We are so grateful their voices will be heard!

Happy Halloween Eve, everyone! We hope everyone has a fun and safe celebration this weekend!

Larry and Brenda Potterfield, along with many of their employees at MidwayUSA, have been generously donating deer to our friends for two years now. We appreciate the kindness they show, alongside Mark Robb, who coordinates this exchange. We hope that this project can continue and grow. Thank you, Larry and Brenda!

Are you wanting to support City of Refuge in a creative way!? We are taking part in CoMoGives this December & are looking for volunteers willing to run their own *peer-to-peer campaign.* This is an easy way to raise support from your network for refugees in our community. Across the nation, one-third of all online donations happen through peer-to-peer fundraisers.... Want to learn more? Comment below and we will be in touch. Thank you for your continued support!

WEEKLY NEEDS As we face colder weather, families are looking for warm gloves. If you have any extra, please consider giving them to someone in need! We're looking for adult and child sizes, new or like new. You can also donate the cost of a pair here: https://rb.gy/btxlly

Check out this incredible, custom artwork we received from Jenny McGee Art Studio!! This is now the first thing our refugee families see when they walk through the door. Thank you so much for the beautiful artwork, Jenny!

Check out this amazing video of our friends over at Joe Machens Toyota dropping off their donations this week! We're so grateful for all this support!

Thank you Joe Machens Toyota for your generous donation! We are so grateful for support from local companies like you!

We had a BIG delivery of essential Basic-Need Donations today thanks to our friends in Alpha Kappa Alpha & University of Missouri Chi Omega! They worked together and brought over 3,500(!!) items needed for our programs, including: -500 diapers/baby wipes -250 toothbrushes/toothpaste... -200 bottles of shampoo, conditioner, & soap -92 battery packs & headphones & much more! From our entire team, THANK YOU so much!!

Wow!! What an incredible honor to be recognized next to so many amazing organizations & businesses in our community!