By Doyal D'angelo Bolin
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, there were an estimated 120+ million refugees – people who have been forcibly displaced because of persecution, violence, conflict, and human rights violations – around the world as of May 2024.
When a refugee family arrives in Arizona, they often have little more than what they can carry. Their first months are filled with daunting challenges: finding housing, securing jobs, learning English, and adapting to an entirely new culture. But thanks to the Welcome to America Project (WTAP), refugees don't have to face these challenges alone.
The organization has seen its impact multiply recently through strategic partnerships, including with The Burton Family Foundation. With the foundation's support, WTAP has doubled its operational capacity with a second delivery truck, expanded its warehouse space, and launched operations in Tucson. The foundation's investment in WTAP has also allowed the organization to provide household items, such as televisions and sewing machines, which have helped create precious moments of normalcy that transform a house into a home – like a family sitting together watching TV for the first time in their new living room.
WTAP's warehouse operations showcase the community's generosity in action. Throughout the week, local residents drop off carefully curated donations, which volunteers sort and organize each Wednesday. The organization maintains high standards for donations, ensuring that every item given to families is in excellent condition and culturally appropriate. Through partnerships with organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Treasures 4 Teachers, items that don't meet WTAP's specific needs find homes elsewhere in the community.
Then, every Saturday morning, remarkable scenes of humanity unfold across the Phoenix metropolitan area. Volunteers gather at WTAP's warehouse, load trucks with furniture, household items, and carefully selected donations, before fanning out across the city to welcome refugee families to their new homes.
But these aren't just furniture deliveries, they're transformational moments of human connection.
"Until you came, we were just visitors. Now we are home," one Congolese family told WTAP volunteers after their welcome visit. It's a sentiment that captures the heart of WTAP's mission: making refugees feel truly welcome in their new community.
With a small but mighty staff of six, WTAP coordinates an army of passionate volunteers to serve 8-9 families every weekend. Working in partnership with local resettlement agencies, they identify newly arrived families and assess their specific needs. Then, through a carefully orchestrated weekly rhythm of home visits, warehouse organizing, and Saturday deliveries, they transform empty apartments into furnished homes.
WTAP prides itself on bringing people together. Their volunteer waitlist stretches months and months out, with participants ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs to formerly welcomed refugees who return to help newcomers. Children welcome children, breaking down barriers with innocent smiles. Corporate groups work alongside faith communities, and people from across the political spectrum come together in service.
WTAP views these welcome visits as a good challenge to preconceptions on all sides. As families might offer tea and hospitality to their visitors out of gratitude, volunteers frequently find themselves more welcomed than they expected. When volunteers share their own family's immigration histories, refugee families realize that America is truly a nation of immigrants.
Amela Duric, development manager at WTAP and herself a former refugee, recently witnessed a powerful moment that captured the program's impact. Returning to deliver a forgotten item, she found a family gathered in their newly furnished living room, watching television together for the first time, which is often a simple pleasure for American families. "As a former refugee myself, I understood exactly what that moment meant," she shared. "These are the core memories families will carry forward.”
WTAP programs connect refugees with education, careers
The organization has developed intuitive programs to address the complex challenges refugees face. Their Career Bridging initiative helps skilled refugee professionals rekindle their careers in America, rather than remaining stuck in entry-level jobs that don’t match the formal training many refugees have received in their home countries.
Through this program, doctors, engineers, accountants, and other professionals receive support in recertifying, connecting with employers, and securing positions aligned with their expertise. Since launching, this new program has assisted 17 refugees with securing professional positions closer to their career of choice and helped them collectively generate approximately $1 million in salary.
Looking ahead, WTAP continues to innovate. Recently, they announced a new initiative, in partnership with Utah-based nonprofit One Refugee, to help refugees aged 17-25 access higher education, addressing a crucial gap in their services. Additionally, WTAP is expanding their career support services through partnerships offering free access to Cornell certificate programs and Coursera courses.
Finding work is essential for material health, but also for mental health, as lack of employment is associated with an increased likelihood of PTSD according to a 2022 study.
The impact of this work ripples outward. One participant, after securing an accounting position at Northern Trust, immediately began looking for ways to help other refugees join the company. Another individual, hired as the first refugee employee at a local Sheraton hotel, went on to recruit 140 more refugee employees behind him.
WTAP also offers the Mobile Clothing Closet program that brings pop-up shops to various community locations, allowing families to "shop" for free clothing in a dignified setting. Similarly, the Welcome Lights program provides essential items to longer-term residents who may have fallen through the cracks.
And their bicycle program, supported by dedicated volunteers and community partners, provides crucial transportation for many families. A 2022 survey of Tucson refugees found that most refugees are negatively affected by transportation issues.
The work WTAP does isn't without challenges. Geopolitical uncertainties affect refugee admissions across the United States and in Arizona, and maintaining a steady supply of essential items like couches and bicycles requires constant community outreach. But WTAP's leadership stays focused on their mission, knowing that every welcome visit represents a crucial moment in a family's journey.
Opening the door to normalcy for refugees
When Mozhdah finally arrived in the United States after waiting 12 years in Turkey, she carried with her two decades of experience as a hairstylist – and her dreams. But those dreams seemed to crumble when she was told she couldn't practice her craft in America. Taking a job at a restaurant salad bar to survive, she felt disappointed and alone, as settling into a new country as a single woman was hard.
Then she discovered WTAP at a Tucson event, where she learned how to craft a resume, secured her first job, and received household items.
WTAP helped Mozhdah secure her stylist certification and connected her with Gadabout Salon & Spa, ranked among the best of Tucson's salons. Beyond professional support, WTAP provided essentials like a laptop for her English classes and a television to make her apartment feel more like home.
Today, Mozhdah isn't just surviving – she's thriving. While working at the salon, she's currently undertaking psychology courses through E-Cornell, along with courses on leadership and client relationships. She's also discovered a passion for abstract painting.
Mozhdah, like many other refugees, wants to help those in her position. She volunteers to help other refugees, sharing her phone number within the community and connecting newcomers with available resources.
"I was so lucky that day I attended that event and met the Welcome to America Project," Mozhdah reflects. "Without them, I would never have found such a good job or gotten my certification as a hairstylist."
When Mozhdah is not in school or doing hair, she nurtures her passion for art, as she has an exhibit at the Flowing Wells Library in Tucson.
When Nadia arrived in Arizona in 2022 after being evacuated from Afghanistan and spending two and a half months in a Wisconsin camp, she spoke "almost zero" English and struggled with depression from being separated from her family for the first time. But through volunteering with WTAP, she found a path forward.
"Welcome to America was a rock for me," she says. "I didn't have any friends when I got here."
Nadia is pursuing a master's degree in global health at ASU while helping other Afghan refugees by interpreting in Dari and Pashto. She marvels at how the organization has connected her with professionals from companies like Google and Facebook, as well as ASU professors through volunteering.
The program has provided her with essentials like a TV, which has become an English teacher for her as she has spent hours on end watching programs with subtitles. But more importantly, it gives her a feel for the culture and community.
Nadia believes in the power of cultural exchange, which WTAP facilitates.
"Kindness is a language," Nadia says. "You can talk with everyone, even if you cannot say hi in their language."
Photos courtesy of The Welcome to America Project
To learn more about the Welcome to America Project, please visit https://www.wtap.org.