Category: NEAT Stories

Through the Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Team (NEAT) program, your support of IM4HI has helped ease the transition for 269 newly arrived immigrants fleeing war, climate change, and instability from countries all around the world.

Your support helps people like Kate and Alex, from Ukraine, gain footing and heal after fleeing the ongoing violence and devastation of war.

Kate reached out to IM4HI while she and her husband were still in Europe, urgently seeking contacts and support in the U.S. We were able to match them with St. Mary the Virgin and Sherith Israel congregations, who agreed to accompany them upon arrival. Kate shares that knowing trustworthy people would be there to receive them meant all the world, helping them feel less alone and alleviating some of the stress and trauma as they fled their home country. 

As they continue settling in and rebuilding their lives, Kate shares her gratitude: “St. Mary the Virgin and Sherith Israel have been helping us for over six months. They helped us to find and partly sponsored a wonderful, cozy, and bright apartment, found an immigration lawyer, taught us English, helped us with knowledge and advice, and involved us in all activities so that we would be fully integrated into American society. We are the lucky ones because all the holidays in the USA we now celebrate together. The most important thing is that I know for sure that each of the members of the group sincerely worries about us. And today I can say with confidence that they are our second family here in the United States.”

As faith communities we have welcomed families that have had to  flee war, violence, and economic instability from all over the world, including Haiti, Nigeria, Ghana, the Philippines, Afghanistan, Laos, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cambodia, Guatemala, Mexico, and El Salvador, among others.

The San Francisco Interfaith Council (SFIC) 94th Online Briefing for Community and Faith Partners welcomed Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity’s Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Team (NEAT) Program Manager Kelly Younger, who offered an overview of her organization’s important work, the danger of exploiting unknowing immigrants for political gain, and practical ways in which San Francisco congregations can support newly arrived asylum seekers.

Also participating were Zoom Briefing Moderator/SFIC Executive Director Michael Pappas, Congregation Sha’ar Zahav Rabbi Mychal Copeland, San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs (OCEIA) Deputy Director Richard Whipple and Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity (NEAT) Program Coordinator Nadia Tavera Medina.

Additional Resources:

• Kelly Younger’s Slide Presentation
• Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
• Nueva Esperanza Accompaniment Teams (NEAT) Program
• New Anchor Hosted Housing Program
• Partners St. Mary the Virgin Episcopal Church/Congregation Sherith Israel’s
• Accompaniment Experience
• ‘Migrant Buses’: The Crudest Face of a System Built to Exclude by Deborah Lee
• San Francisco Immigrant Support