How To Help

There are many ways to show your support! Whether you live locally, far away, have donations, skills or resources to offer, we’d love to have you join our team! Below are a few ways to get involved that might fit various schedules, skills, and commitment levels. 

 

 

Join Us Joining our team is a commitment that is a reflection of how much you want to be involved. For local community members, common support can come in the following forms:

  1. Driving resettled family members to appointments or classes (regularly or on occasion)
  2. Lending a large vehicle for a furniture/donations pick-up
  3. Sharing experience with applying to jobs
  4. Sharing experience with finding housing
  5. Babysitting
  6. Teaching cooking, sewing, and other helpful skills
  7. Offering translation skills

Additionally, if you are interested in joining us at our events, such as Broths for a Better World, or other local campus speakers, musicians, comedians, documentary screenings, etc. we invite you to join our emailing list so that you can stay updated with upcoming events! If you want to join our team, please contact us and we would be excited to talk through specific opportunities to get involved!

Please consider donating to contribute to our resettlement efforts. We accept monetary donations as well as in-kind donations.

Monetary Donations:
You have several options for monetary donations:

  1. Click here to donate through PayPal.
  2. If you want to donate through Venmo, our Venmo account is @refugeeaction.
  3. You can also drop off checks at Room 107 in Farinon College Center, Lafayette College, Easton, PA. Please enter Lafayette College as the payee on the check with the memo Refugee Action.

In-Kind Donations:
We often organize donation drives when a family arrives in the Lehigh Valley to provide them with basic household supplies and ease their transition to living in the U.S. Even when we do not have an active donation drive, we still accept furniture donations. These are the furniture items we currently need:

  1. Couches/Loveseats/Armchairs
  2. Beds
  3. Dressers
  4. Kitchen tables/chairs
  5. Coffee Tables/End Tables/Night Stands

If you have furniture you would like to donate, please contact us (see below) and we will work with you to organize a pick up of the furniture. If you would like to be notified when we organize a donation drive, please contact us and we will add you to our emailing list.

Donations
Support from far away Our resettlement program solely operates in the Lehigh Valley, and as such, some of the ways that we ask for community support are not available to those who live far away. However, do not despair! There are still a few ways that you can help to support our program and other resettlement programs in your area:

  1. We will gladly take any financial donations. These funds go directly towards our refugee resettlement efforts here in Easton and cover costs such as:
    1. Initial grocery shopping for the day of arrival
    2. Any furnishings, kitchen appliances, etc that haven’t been donated that we need to buy for the home
    3. Initial costs such as internet and phone bills while the family gets settled
  2. Stay tuned for any virtual Amazon registry donation drives that we run. These usually happen when a new family is arriving and we are working to gather last minute needed items that can be purchased online and mailed to us.
  3. Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) is always looking to expand and create more chapters at more universities. Currently, there are ECAR Chapters actively hosting refugees here in Pennsylvania (us!), as well as in Georgia, Ohio, Florida and North Carolina. To learn more about the founding chapter of ECAR at Guilford College and to read about their process, checkout their website here.
  4. Find a way to get involved within existing refugee resettlement structures near you! Contact your local refugee resettlement agency and ask how you can get involved in helping out. In the US, there are 9 big refugee resettlement agencies and within each there are smaller organizations. You can find the list here. Click here for a map that can be a good start for finding resources and contacts where you are, as it has many of the main organizations searchable by location.
Educational Resources:

Possible Films Screenings:  

Other Films: 

Educate Yourself
Contact Your Representative Who Is My Representative?: Link

National Priorities Project: Find Your Representative

International Rescue Committee: Call Your Representative

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

If you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions, we would love to hear from you!

General email (checked regularly): refact@lafayette.edu

You can also reach out directly to our Co-Presidents:

President of Resettlement – Katie Kavanagh at kavanakj@lafayette.edu

President of Events and Outreach – Lauren Phillips-Jackson at phillile@lafayette.edu 

Contact Us