Contact Name: Courtney Lewis, courtneylewis@kclibrary.org
Type of Initiative: Civic Engagement   
Initiative Partners: Jewish Vocational Service

More than 120 children and their families also took part in two special refugee-themed storytimes throughout the day. The event was a success but it was a strong community partnership took these messages from a hashtag on social media to being something a refugee family can physically hold in their hands. The postcards will be included in welcome packages provided by Jewish Vocational Services, a local resettlement agency.

Description:

The program is called #ToImmigrantsWithLove, presented by the Kansas City Public Library’s Refugee and Immigrant Service & Empowerment team (RISE). The program is an open house on February 18, 2017 for the public to come and create positive notes, letters, postcards, and even drawings for the immigrants and refugees living in the greater Kansas City community. The Library will provide all the necessary materials, and will even have a selfie station where participants are encouraged to share their messages of love and support on social media, hence the hashtag #toimmigrantswithlove.  This event is family friendly, and our children’s librarians will offer two story times with stories about children from refugee and immigrant families. The goal of this program is create inclusion, tolerance, and foster a spirit of community for families who are starting over in a brand new land. The Library began planning this in December, but the event took on heightened interest from the public and local press once the travel restrictions went into place the weekend. In fact, a Facebook invite has 501 RSVPs as ‘going’ and another 2,400 as ‘interested.’ We do expect some refugee families now living in KC to be there as well.

The Library will then pass on the letters to Jewish Vocational Service, a local refugee resettlement agency, that will distribute the letters to local families who have been here for some time and give them to newly-arrived families as they walk off the planes. 

Our RISE department has been in existence for just over 2 years, and staff is devoted EXCLUSIVELY to working on refugee and immigrant issues. 

UPDATE: 

More than 120 children and their families also took part in two special refugee-themed storytimes throughout the day. The event was a success but it was a strong community partnership took these messages from a hashtag on social media to being something a refugee family can physically hold in their hands. The postcards will be included in welcome packages provided by Jewish Vocational Services, a local resettlement agency.