Upcoming Events
On December 5th at 6pm, composer Iván Enrique Rodríguez and UC Santa Cruz scholar Amy Argenal will discuss the complex experiences of migrants, the many challenges of seeking asylum and refuge in the United States, and the power of music as a tool for social change. Learn more and register at thi.ucsc.edu.
Welcoming Network in the News
Santa Cruz Embraces Refugees
A recent Good Times’ cover story features the Welcoming Network and shares the experiences of 3 families from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Colombia. It paints a picture of the difficulties these families have faced in fleeing their home countries, seeking asylum, and beginning to rebuild their lives in a new place and the many ways the Welcoming Network is helping them and others.
Listen to a KSQD's Talk of the Bay interviews with members of the Welcoming Network
December 2023 - The Santa Cruz Welcoming Network Helps Immigrants. Featuring members of an Afghan family.
April 2022 - El Salvador to Santa Cruz -Finding Welcome. Featuring an asylum seeker from El Salvador and two of our volunteers.
April 2021 - Welcoming asylum seekers
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What Success Looks Like
Among the families we have helped is that of Pablo and Carmen (names changed to protect their privacy). Pablo was a policeman in El Salvador in a community heavily impacted by gangs. When the gang threatened his whole family, they made the harrowing trip north, spent months stuck at the Mexico border in danger from the cartels that controlled the area, and finally were able to apply for asylum. They were paroled into the U.S. and came to Santa Cruz. Here they connected to the Welcoming Network through a Venezuelan refugee they had met in Mexico who was working with an immigrant support group in the Bay Area.
A retired attorney that volunteers with the Welcoming Network helped Pablo and Carmen write their 12-page Declaration for Asylum. They got work permits. Though they were professionals in El Salvador (Carmen was a social worker), Carmen had to start in a fast–food place on the night shift. The Welcoming Network bought her slip-resistant shoes. Later both of them found better jobs in a factory, working different shifts in order to care for their two children. They are smart and very motivated. Welcoming Network initially helped with the rent, but now the family is proudly covering their own expenses.
We are also assisting a family of seven from Mexico. They fled for their lives after one family member was wounded and a friend killed by an organized-crime gang. They were able to take almost nothing with them. They landed in Watsonville where family members took them in until the landlord demanded that they move out of the over-crowded apartment. So they found themselves in one of the most expensive housing markets in the world with no money and nowhere to go. The Community Action Board contacted us, and between that agency, local churches, and the Welcoming Network, we were able to get them into emergency shelter in a motel. Not cheap, and not at all adequate for the family. After weeks of searching, we found them a house to rent in Aromas, and we provided rental assistance, helped them find other sources of rental assistance, and worked with them on a path to self-sufficiency. It is a wonderful family, and they have been welcomed by neighbors in Aromas who are experiencing, as all of us volunteers are, what an enriching experience it is to work with these immigrant families. Not just being able to help, but also forming bonds of friendship that transcend language and culture. Here again we see what the Welcoming Network is making possible.