First UMC Middletown Joins Refugee Resettlement Coalition

First United Methodist Church, Middletown had a strong showing at the latest meeting of the Middletown Refugee Resettlement Coalition meeting Wednesday night at the Russell Library. The coalition is a volunteer efforts being managed as a collaborative volunteer effort between several churches in the Middletown area, with financial support contributed both from private and public donations. 

The coalition is preparing to sponsor three refugee families expected to arrive in the next few months, from war and terror zones such as Syria and Iraq, or from other regions as required. Each family is likely to have at least two children, so the needs that they will have to have addressed are many. In conjunction with IRIS, a New-Haven-based refugee resettlement organization, the three families will be given several months of support to help them to become self-supporting residents of the U.S.

First UMC Middletown has joined a team to support one of the expected families, but the skills required to support all of the families will overlap, and may come in use for each of them, since they will all be arriving at different times. Specific needs that will have to be addressed and that require skills and resources include:

• Fundraising
• Family contact coordination
• Employment
• Housing
• Furniture and furnishings
• Clothing and household items
• FInance
• Education/ESOL (for children and adults)
• Health
• Transportation
• Hospitality/Acculturation

If you would like to learn more about this effort, please contact Pastor Barbara Marks via the church office, or email us at outreach@fumcmiddletownct.org.