Volunteer Perspective

Like many of my peers, I discovered in my sixties that volunteering for causes I care about fills me with purpose and joy. So, when I heard that my small southern city was taking in more than 150 Afghan refugees, I signed up to help. As a white, middle-income, semi-retired woman, I’m a cliche among new refugee sponsors, motivated by the best of intentions, but not always the best awareness of all that sponsorship entails.

When describing the work I do here at TSOS, I often say, we try to help people “step into each other’s stories.” Lately, I’ve been doing more of that myself.

Their Story is Our Story was invited to participate in “Welcoming Kansas City” to collaborate with and support groups ranging from Arabic communities to groups dedicated to supporting women who have been sexually abused or involved in human trafficking

Sarah Kippen Wood, Former Executive Director of Their Story is Our Story (TSOS), shares how stories connect and lead to change in an interview with Darien Laird, our Director of External Media. Sarah gives us an inside look at how TSOS functions and shares how telling her story helped her fight a stage four cancer diagnosis.

When I was in high school, I was fascinated by geography, and it struck me that there was a highway that I could hop on in my car and drive all the way down into South America. As an imaginative young girl growing up on the Texas-Mexico border, the idea of a road that could take me from my sleepy border town, Laredo, Texas, to the edge of the world in South America, left me awe struck. In high school I learned that this highway is called the Pan-American Highway.

Queen Elizabeth's passing has brought a renewed love of Paddington Bear, who for many charities, has become a powerful image for refugees. Mugs and t-shirts with pictures of Paddington and stating ‘Migration is not a Crime’ can be seen. And who can argue with a cute bear?

I quickly realized that in order for my friend Jahan to re-establish her upended art career, she would need some help from a local artist. Enter Ann Marie Coolick, an artist from Arlington, Virginia.

Tucson, and other cities, do so much more when they connect with charities such as Catholic Community Services’ Casa Alitas program. Everywhere you look you can see artwork that brightens the place and further welcomes people. And economically it helps both the city and its citizens.

Friendship is what really matters when someone is far from the home that they know and love.

A teacher in an inner city school describes how her school helps with the integration of students from all over the world.