Page 1 HOST WELCOMING REFUGEES EVENTS We encourage people across the country to host Welcoming Refugees events around World Refugee Day (June 20) to raise awareness about the power of refugee resettlement and call on our nation s leaders to step up to welcome more refugees. We call on members of Congress to push the administration to resettle at least 45,000 refugees by September 30, and set a goal of resettling 75,000 refugees in fiscal year 2019. The events could be a dinner, panel discussion, project, interfaith vigil, or weekly service hosted at a local place of worship, community center, house, or school. Sign up to host or attend an event here. This is a joint effort of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Refugee Council USA, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, and our networks across the country. Part I - Setting up your Welcoming Refugees Event Steps to organizing a successful World Refugee Day event Identify core leaders and speakers from your community, and focus on people who are directly impacted. Ensure local resettled refugee communities are invited to help plan and speak at the event. Consider inviting elected officials and their staff to the event. This could include your Representatives, Senators, member of your city or town council, or your mayor. If your member of Congress will be in D.C. be sure to invite their local staff. Be clear about your event goals, including how many people you hope will join the event. The over-all goal of these events is to call on our nation s leaders to step up to welcome more refugees. Identify the best location for the event. It could be a place of worship, community center, a house, or school. You could also choose somewhere symbolic, such as a memorial, state capitol, park, city hall, or near the member of Congress local office. However, these venues may require permits, or require a fee. Reserve or order any equipment you ll need such as microphones, cameras, banners, candles, and projectors. Make sure you have access electrical outlets. If you plan to use Facebook or Twitter to publicize the event, make sure that your venue has a strong WIFI signal. Choose a time of day best for attendance and media. If you aim to have local television coverage, most TV news is aired from 5-6 p.m. (early evening news) and 9-10 p.m. (late evening news). If you want your local newspaper to cover your event, the deadline is usually 2 p.m. Schedule your event in advance of these news slots. Promote the event through social media, public service announcement, flyers, websites, and church bulletins. Agree on messaging and talking points for speakers. You can find talking points here. Assign specific talking points to each speaker and ensure they have time limits. Bring signs that are consistent with your messages. Samples are available in our social media section below. Invite the media by issuing a media advisory and following up with a press release after the event. See templates in our media resources section below.
Page 2 Invite participants at the event to urge the administration to resettle 45,000 refugees by the end of this fiscal year, and 75,000 in fiscal year 2019. The set-up for the event should ensure that all faiths are respected and welcomed with awareness and consciousness. Drawing on different faith traditions and rituals can make event much more powerful. Ask clergy or faith leaders attending to wear collars, stoles, robes and any other appropriate religious attire. Ask one of your leaders to moderate the event, ensuring that it flows well and it starts and ends as planned. Sample Program Welcome a few words about the focus and purpose of this event. This may take the form of brief comments from one of your speakers, or a welcome and an opening prayer. Use these talking points to share with speakers. Music - Invite local musicians who share similar values to join your event, you can have them do one or two songs throughout the program. Choose songs that are connected to themes of welcome, or songs that everyone knows and can sing along. Opening Prayer If this is already part of the Welcome, ask attending clergy or key lay leader to open with a prayer or reading on welcome. Introduce the speaker or speakers The event moderator should do this. Speaker Share a personal story of a former refugee who has found welcome in a new community, or from a community member of how refugee resettlement has benefited the community. Closing reiterate the focus and purpose of this event marking World Refugee Day and committing ourselves to push for refugee protection and resettlement. Send participants off with a call to welcome newcomers and raise their voices in the public sphere to ensure that the United States resettles at least 45,000 refugees this fiscal year and push for at least 75,000 in the coming fiscal year. At the end, be sure to thank all the speakers and participants. The rest of the event can be focused on fellowship and community building. If there are reporters covering your event, make sure that you ve identified spokespeople to answer any questions they may have after the event. Sample Invitation to Your Member of Congress Your member of Congress may be in D.C. during World Refugee Day, June 20, but you should still invite them to attend or send a staff member. If they have been a leader on these issues already, make sure to thank them! Dear Honorable Senator / Representative,
Page 3 We would like to invite you to attend [ORGANIZATION/ COALITION] s event honoring World Refugee Day. We would be honored to have your presence as a speaker and participant at this event, or someone from your office attend in your stead. Other speakers include [list 2-3 top speakers] Please let us know as soon as you can if you are able to attend by contacting me at [email]. If you can attend, we will send you the logistics, the agenda, and draft talking points. Thank you. Sincerely, Part II - Spreading the Word on Welcome: Media Resources When you plan a Welcoming Refugees event, we encourage you to reach out and invite members of the media. You will not only gain more publicity for your event, but also focus on broad community support for immigrants, refugees, and resettlement. Look online at the local publications or outlets you would like to cover your events. Search online to find out who has written or covered immigration or refugee issues. Pitch your event to reporters who frequently cover the issue, a general reporter, or a freelance writer. You can pitch your event by sending a media advisory and following it up with a phone call. Likewise, you can reach out to your local reporter via Twitter. Send the media advisory ahead of the event. Ideally, send the media advisory one week before the event and then again, the day before your event. Media Advisory: Inviting Media to Your Event DATE For Immediate Release Contact: NAME, PHONE NUMBER ***MEDIA ADVISORY*** Date of Event, Time, Location Local (Faith Groups/Community Groups) Hosts Event Observing World Refugee Day and Reaffirming Welcome to Refugees in (Name of Town) Your City Name, State Abbreviation As the (City/Town Name) community seeks to meaningfully respond to the global refugee crisis and welcome all refugees into our community, leaders from (Organization/Congregation) will host (event type) to show support for welcoming refugees.
Page 4 They will be joined by refugees from (country) and (list other special guests (especially clergy or elected officials). Participants will discuss how refugees positively impact the community, and the hope that Congress will robustly fund resettlement programs. They will call on the administration to resettle 45,000 refugees this year and at least 75,000 in fiscal year 2019. All participants will be available for interviews before and after the event. WHAT: Event type with faith and community leaders to welcome refugees and support resettlement WHERE: Address of event WHEN: Date and time of event SPEAKERS: List of all speakers and their titles DETAILS: Add event details such as security (if applicable), special visuals (religious symbols, art pieces, etc.), or any other important event information. ### This Welcoming Refugees initiative is a joint effort of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Refugee Council USA, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, and the networks they represent across the country. Pitching an Exclusive Interview To increase your chances of the media covering your story, you could set up an exclusive interview with your local media outlet. Making your event exclusive to one reporter makes it more appealing to the journalist as they will be the first ones to break the story that ties into current events at a local level. When pitching an exclusive story, be sure to research the outlets and reporters in your area. Who are the top current event, immigration, or political reporters in your area? Have they written about refugees before? If so, how can you tie your event into their previous work? Answering these questions and using them to draft your pitch will help increase the chances of your welcoming event being covered and featured as an exclusive in a larger outlet. Draft Pitch Email for Media Invitation and Follow Up from Advisory Dear (Name of reporter), I hope you are well! I wanted to let you know of a potential story concerning refugee resettlement and the ongoing response from communities in CITY/STATE. On DATE, we will be hosting a welcoming event with refugees and people of faith to observe World Refugee Day on June 20. This initiative is a joint effort of the Friends Committee on National Legislation (fcnl.org), Refugee Council USA (rcusa.org), the Interfaith Immigration Coalition (interfaithimmigration.org), and the networks they represent across the country.
Page 5 The government has approved 45,000 refugees for resettlement this year. But we know we can do more and are aiming to resettle 75,000 more refugees next year. With the continued heated political debate over refugee resettlement, the event will highlight the human stories behind the resettlement program. It will show how local families and faith communities are impacted by these policies and our commitment to restoring welcome. Given your coverage of this issue, I would love to offer you an exclusive interview about this event. Please let me know if you are interested. Thank you. Sincerely, Name Address and phone number Press Release As soon as possible after the event, send a press release to the same list of journalists that you used for your media advisory. This doesn t have to be very different from your media advisory, but it should include quotes from attendees and organizers/faith leaders. DATE For Immediate Release Contact: NAME, PHONE NUMBER Local (Faith Groups/Community Groups) Hosts Event Observing World Refugee Day and Reaffirming Welcome to Refugees in (Name of Town) Your City Name, State Abbreviation Marking World Refugee Day, leaders from (Organization/Congregation) hosted an event to show support for welcoming refugees. They were joined by refugees from (country) and (list other special guests, especially clergy or elected officials). [Quote from refugee or special guest]. The speakers expressed the hope that Congress will robustly fund refugee resettlement. They called on the administration to resettle 45,000 refugees this year and at least 75,000 in fiscal year 2019. [Participant quote about how refugees positively impact the community or reaction to the event] As the (City/Town Name) community seeks to meaningfully respond to the global refugee crisis and welcome all refugees into our community, the administration has set the lowest refugee resettlement
Page 6 goal 45,000 -- in decades. To date, the U.S. is scheduled to have settled less than half that number at the end of fiscal year 2018. ### This Welcoming Refugees initiative is a joint effort of the Friends Committee on National Legislation, Refugee Council USA, the Interfaith Immigration Coalition, and the networks they represent across the country. For help with local media outreach, please contact Jennifer Amuzie, jamuzie@interfaithimmigration.org Part III - Lift Up Your Event on Social Media Let your community and network hear loud and clear: Refugees Welcome! Utilize social media on World Refugee Day to amplify your message and share photos of your event. Take photos with signs to accompany tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram. Tag FCNL (@FCNL), Interfaith Immigration Coalition (@interfaithimm), or Refugee Council USA (@RCUSA_DC) to be retweeted! When posting, use these hashtags: #WRD2018 or #RefugeesWelcome Printable Sign Take pictures with this sign and share! Send pictures to Jennifer (jamuzie@interfaithimmigration.org) so that we can amplify and share them as well. Sample Tweets About your event: My community gathered today in honor of #WRD2018. We have this simple message: Refugees will always be welcomed in [city, state]. #RefugeesWelcome Today we gather to raise awareness about the power of refugee resettlement and call on our nation s leaders to set up and welcome more refugees. #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome Did you know that at 45,000 people the administration has set the lowest refugee resettlement goal in decades? This is unacceptable. Here in [city, state] we say #RefugeesWelcome! #WRD2018 [@elected official] Join your constituents in [city, state] on #WRD2018 and ask the administration to #WelcomeRefugees! [@elected official], Your constituents from [city, state] are gathered to honor #WRD2018. Join us by calling on @potus to resettle 75k refugees in FY19 #RefugeesWelcome Thanks, [@elected official] for your support of #refugees and policies that welcome them to our communities! #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome Contributions and Benefits of Refugees in Our Communities: [Name of group, family, etc.] is ready to welcome #refugees! #RefugeesWelcome #WRD2018 (insert photo)
Page 7 My community is better with refugees. They [pay taxes, create jobs, start businesses, bring cultural diversity, open restaurants, etc.]. #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome This #WRD2018, we celebrate the diversity and resilience #refugees bring to our communities! #RefugeesWelcome Refugee #resettlement means not only saving lives, but also successfully integrating #refugees in communities across the US. #WRD2018 Making #RefugeesWelcome involves teamwork! NGOs, faith communities, community groups & others should all chip in. #WRD2018 #Refugees who get tools they need to succeed add real value to our communities as hardworking taxpayers #WRD2018 Refugees across the US add value: working, learning English, paying taxes, opening businesses & becoming citizens. #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome Every year, #refugees open businesses, revitalize towns, become citizens & give back to the communities that welcomed them. #WRD2018 Want to help celebrate #WRD2018? Join the #RefugeesWelcome initiative & help welcome #refugees in your area! Visit www.refugeesarewelcome.org Refugee Facts: DID YOU KNOW: 51% of #refugees are under the age of 18. What if that was someone you know? #WRD2018 The number of #refugees and others forcibly displaced from their homes is over 61 million worldwide, the highest level since WWII #WRD2018 Every minute, 24 people are forced to flee their homes because of war or persecution. #RefugeesWelcome #WRD2018 The US has been a global leader in the protection of refugees and must continue to set an example as a haven. #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome The US Refugee Resettlement Program is a lifesaving, public-private partnership for #refugees with no other means of finding safety. #WRD2018 DID YOU KNOW: Fewer than 1% of the world's 21.3 million refugees will be resettled. #WRD2018 Sample Facebook & Instagram Posts Today, members of my community gathered in honor of World Refugee Day to raise awareness about the power of refugee resettlement. We call on our nation s leaders to step up and welcome more refugees. In (city, state) refugees are welcome. #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome Did you know the number of #refugees and others forcibly displaced from their homes is over 65 million worldwide, the highest level in history? In FY2018, the US set a goal of 45,000, a record low, yet is only on track to resettle 20,000 refugees. This is unacceptable. Refugees are an integral part of my community--starting businesses, sharing their cultural, paying taxes. Join me in asking the administration to resettle at least 75,000 refugees in 2019! #WRD2018 #RefugeesWelcome Sample Graphics Download sample graphics and a printable sign at https://fcnl.org/wrdgraphics
Page 8 Part IV - Creating Your Own Commentary: Writing & Pitching an Op-Ed When drafting an opinion piece, research the outlet you are submitting the article to. Many have a word limit around 600, but please check the outlet s website for guidance. Please feel free to use the points in the draft op-ed below as you write your own opinion article, or feel free to write directly from the heart. What you have to say deserves to be heard! When pitching your op-ed, it is important to keep your pitch short and on message. Most editors and outlets prefer pitches over email or through a submission form on their website. It is important to keep your pitch short, as reporters are often on a deadline and receive many story pitches every day. Open your pitch with an interesting first line and relate the pitch back to another story the reporter has recently written to increase the likelihood of the reporter picking up your story. Please see the draft pitch below for an example email. Draft Pitch Email for an Op-Ed Dear Editor, As the global community faces the largest displacement crisis in history, our organization/congregation is preparing to resettle refugees. We want to do our part to create a welcoming community. As a leader with ORGANIZATION, I had the unique opportunity to host/attend EVENT, (include brief details). The event inspired me to author the attached op-ed, detailing my experience and reaffirming the need for us all to work together and create an inclusive community. Considering recent anti-muslim rhetoric, this piece offers a timely response and highlights the urgent need to create a welcoming place for all people. Please feel free to contact me at EMAIL or by phone at PHONE NUMBER if you have any questions or would like to discuss the article in greater detail. Thank you in advance for your consideration! Sincerely, NAME Email and phone number Sample World Refugee Day Faith Leader Op-Ed Welcoming Refugees: It s a Matter of Faith On World Refugee Day, I reflect how from the earliest days of [Sunday school/hebrew School/Seminary], my faith taught and called me to welcome the stranger, stand with the vulnerable, and love my neighbor. Now, as a father, minister, and [Tennessean], I am proud to demonstrate these values in my daily life and weekly sermons at [name of congregation]. But it is also because of those values that I am deeply disturbed by recent anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiment espoused by
Page 9 some of our law makers. It sends an unwelcoming and mean-spirited message of exclusion to refugee families fleeing violence and persecution. Last year, [INSERT STATE CONTEXT]. This [BILL, RESOLUTION, PROPOSAL], as well as the recent executive order to stop refugee resettlement stands opposite to my beliefs as a person of faith. Refugees are also the most scrutinized individuals entering the United States. To claim that they are security threats to our community not only ignores the unimaginable circumstances they flee and heavily scrutinized path to a haven in the United States, but also stokes fear rather than cultivating compassion, truth, and understanding. [INSERT RELEVANT SCRIPTURE EX: Bring water to the thirsty, meet the fugitive with bread For they have fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, from the bent bow, and from the stress of battle. - Isaiah 21:14-15; And (as for) those who believed and fled and struggled hard in Allah's way, and those who gave shelter and helped, these are the believers truly; they shall have forgiveness and honorable provision. (Quran 8:74); And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10:19); I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me. (Matthew 25:35). ] From the [earliest books] in the [Bible/Torah/Quran], our faith calls on us to show mercy and hospitality to those fleeing persecution. We are called to treat them with dignity, respect, and love, providing the same welcome that we ourselves would hope for. As Americans, we live in a country built in part by the hard work, dreams, and determination of generations of immigrants and refugees -- many of whom were our ancestors. Sadly, it seems that our state legislators have forgotten these lessons and have acted with fear instead of compassion. Refugees are mothers, fathers, and children. They are doctors, teachers, lawyers, business owners, craftsmen, and musicians. As governments search for solutions to the largest displacement crisis in history, with more than 21 million refugees worldwide, we have a moral obligation to help refugees rebuild their lives and create a better future for their families. These people are no different than our [Biblical] ancestors who were once refugees who found welcome and were called to do the same. Today, on World Refugee Day, I urge our lawmakers to ensure [Tennessee] is providing refugees a chance to live, work, and go to school in safety. To do otherwise would be to dishonor our legacy of welcome and hospitality and fall short of our values. For help with local media outreach, please contact Jennifer Amuzie, jamuzie@interfaithimmigration.org Sample World Refugee Day Refugee Leader Op-Ed Take it From Someone Who Has Been in Their Shoes: We Must Welcome Refugees My name is [name], and I m [career, family, etc.] I came to the United States as a refugee from [country] [time] years ago. My family and I were forced to leave everything behind after [personal story]. Today, on World Refugee Day, I reflect on my journey and am so grateful to the United States and my new community for giving me another chance at life.
Page 10 As with many refugees, I would have preferred to remain in my homeland. However, [share why you needed to move, and that the journey was difficult and long]. After experiencing such traumas, I faced other challenges while resettlement, such as [name a few of these challenges]. What made the biggest difference in overcoming these hardships--and in healing from past traumas--has been the welcome received when I joined my new community. [Name a few ways you were welcomed, and tell how that made you feel.] As someone who understands the struggles of refugees firsthand, I am disheartened to see that my beloved new home is denying that same opportunity to others now facing similarly dangerous situations. I always viewed America as a beacon of hope. The executive orders banning Muslim immigrants and refugees do not reflect that. In fact, they completely contradict the values America stands for: compassion, welcome, and resilience. The United States is a country where anyone should be able to pursue the American Dream and live in safety. [Insert STATE specific context about any refugee-related state proposals.] The fear, hate and xenophobia perpetuated by [IF RELEVANT: this state bill] and the executive order does not reflect the [STATE] and America I know. The [STATE] and America I know is compassionate in its acceptance of those seeking shelter from some of the worst conflicts in history. I continue now to believe in the importance of welcoming others--for others have welcomed me. I seek, myself, to welcome other refugees who are new arrivals. I raise my voice to support the rights of refugees through my work as [INSERT YOUR STORY]. As someone who knows firsthand the horrors that refugees flee and the sense of hope finding a home brings, I urge our local leaders, state legislators, and national policy makers to stand with refugees-- today and every day. Only then will we truly reflect the welcome our country stands for. Together, we can inspire welcome across the country and around the world. These sample op-eds can also be found in the RCUSA toolkit. For help with local media outreach, please contact Jennifer Amuzie, jamuzie@interfaithimmigration.org