Spread Hope for the Holidays

This vacation season, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service launched our seventh annual Hope for the Holidays™.  Every year, we work to carry hope to kids and households in foster care and detention to indicate them that they don’t seem to be alone. We accumulate handmade playing cards and financial donations for presents so that every youngster and household obtain one thing this vacation season and may really feel supported by People by means of their phrases and presents of affection. 

Over the past yr, the world has watched as the USA authorities withdrew from Afghanistan and felt the ache of our Afghan neighbors as concern crept in and goals had been placed on maintain. We raised our voices collectively to advocate for individuals who helped us and for these whose lives had been in danger with the Taliban taking management of the federal government and creating a brand new regime.  

It’s extra vital than ever that we assist newcomers to the USA and be sure that anybody who involves the USA, whether or not by air, land, or sea, feels welcomed with open arms and loving hearts.  

Right here at LIRS, we lean on our neighborhood to work collectively to make a distinction within the lives of our immigrant neighbors. One of many methods we have now discovered to do that is by creating moments of neighborhood the place we may be collectively, one thing so missed through the peak of the pandemic. As we be a part of collectively, we put our presents to make use of and work collectively to welcome the stranger.  

That is my first yr working with LIRS on Hope for the Holidays. To me, it’s such an honor to make an affect on households experiencing detention with a small be aware of encouragement and love. I’ve been extremely impressed by all of the methods individuals give their time, power, and donations. Whether by sorting incoming playing cards and mailing them out or internet hosting buddies to rejoice the vacation season and inspiring one another to write down notes, individuals are stepping up for our immigrant neighbors. 

Final yr, once we had been all remoted from one another, we returned to outdated methods of speaking, together with porch conversations and letter writing. We acknowledged the human should be collectively and to present one another we care. 

That’s what Hope for the Holidays is all about. At a time of isolation and concern, we flip to our immigrant neighbors in love and allow them to know we see them and are pondering of them. I really like that Hope for the Holidays considers those that really feel forgotten throughout a time of overwhelming abundance and reminds them that they matter to individuals they’ve by no means met.  

It brings buddies collectively to envision a world through which our communities are widened for all and strangers develop into neighbors. 

Host a Hope for the Holidays Social gathering

Right here’s how YOU can widen your neighborhood: invite your family members to a Hope for the Holidays get together!

Earlier than the Social gathering 

• On the invite, embrace a hyperlink to the web site the place the toolkit and webinar may be discovered.  
• Create a fundraiser to assist presents for youngsters, permitting them to obtain one thing particular this vacation season.
  

In the course of the Social gathering 

• Get the get together began with our Hope for the Holidays playlist!
• Embody enjoyable vacation actions and themed meals/costume. Make it enjoyable and make it your personal! 
• Collect card-making provides and encourage creativity!
• Take a look at our toolkit for recommendations on sending a message in Spanish.

After the Social gathering 

• Bear in mind to separate the playing cards from envelopes and fill out the kind at LIRS.org/sendHOPE. 
• Ship playing cards to your nearest accomplice hub.
  

As you be a part of with your loved ones and buddies this vacation season, consider opening your coronary heart and widening your neighborhood and unfold love with LIRS.