Veterans helping refugees

On Saturday November 19th 2016, a coalition of veteran service organizations came together for a joint project to help the International Institute of New England (IINE) better support refugees. This project was inspired by

Vets for American Ideals⁠

efforts to secure

Special Immigrant Visas⁠

for Iraqi and Afghan translators: what more can veterans groups do to help those who helped us and those most impacted by our generation’s wars. Led by

Team Rubicon⁠

and supported by

The Mission Continues⁠

and

Team Red White and Blue⁠

, the three of us joined forces to reorganize IINE’s donation logistics.

The International Institute of New England (IINE) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that resettles and supports refugees throughout New England. The US State Department

Refugee Admissions⁠

defines a refugee as someone who has fled from his or her home country and cannot return because he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Every year the IINE settles approximately 70 families across Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire, with a surge in the summer and a lull in the winter. This includes 150 adults and 180 children.

In September the IINE received notice of a large increase in the amount of new families that will be resettled in the local area throughout the fall. These refugees are primarily from war-torn countries such as Syria. Cheryl Hamilton, the IINE’s Lowell Site Director and Director of Partner Engagement, posted a call for donations and was overwhelmed with the community response. Unfortunately, they had to ask some donors to hold on to supplies because they lacked sufficient storage facilities and processes. A local charity donated the funds to cover the costs to rent a 16’x20’ storage space for 1 year.

Here is what the IINE storage container looked like before we got started:

⁠

Random boxes, some with labels and some without, black bags full of unsorted clothes, and various loose items all stacked up on the floor. All this is common when you don’t have a good system for storing donations and the horsepower to manage it all. That is where some veterans-based non-profits like us come in.

In my role as the Boston lead for Team Rubicon, I learned about IINE logistical needs through the

Greater Boston Veterans Collaborative⁠

. I know those of us in the military and first-responder communities are very familiar with organizing gear, mostly because our lives (or someone else’s) often depends on reaching into a bag and grabbing exactly what you need without even looking.

After taking some measurements a few weeks back, I turned to my brother Kevin for help. Also a former Marine, Kevin works at NASA and can quickly put together 3D models. Over a couple of hours over dinner one night, he built a few storage options for IINE:

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On the far left was a custom-built plywood design, followed by a couple of store-bought versions. We decided to buy some Home Depot shelving as it gave IINE more flexibility in the future for different configurations and Team Rubicon and IINE split the cost.

Given the amount of material in the space and the number of shelves we bought, I posted a call to help in the veteran service organization community. The Mission Continues and Team Red White and Blue quickly hopped on a board and I had a full crew waiting outside the storage container at 8.30am on a lovely Saturday morning.

Our first tasks were to move all the gear out of the container and start building the shelves.

⁠