Benefit Concert for
ITHACA WELCOMES REFUGEES

Featuring
Burns & Kristy
Sommers & Manning
and more special guests

Saturday, June 28
7:30 to 9:00pm

@ the First Baptist Church
on Dewitt Park in Downtown Ithaca

Tickets available at door only.
Sliding Scale from $10 - $20
(Cash, check and Venmo accepted)

Winter Village Music is organizing a benefit concert in support of Ithaca Welcomes Refugees' (IWF) Spring Appeal. The concert will feature Burns & Kristy with Sommers & Manning and some other special guest performers and speakers. Please consider joining us at this challenging time to learn more about IWR's important work in Tompkins County and to enjoy some great music. If you can't come and want support IWR's efforts, you can follow this link to make a donation - www.ithacawelcomesrefugees.org/make-a-gift/

Tickets for the concert will be available only at the door at a cost ranging from $10 - $20 and can be paid with cash, check or Venmo. The concert will open with a short welcome by IWR representatives, and two short sets of music. Sommers & Manning will open followed by Burns & Kristy.

BACKGROUND
IWF is currently working with 89 people (17 families and 21 individuals) from the following countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Ecuador, Haiti, Mauritania, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

The Spring Appeal will raise funds for their programs supporting refugees and immigrants in Tompkins County. The campaign goal is $50,000.

Policy changes since the entry of the current administration have affected the status, security, freedoms and access to services of displaced people across the country. We remain committed to the framework of partnership provided by our core programs but are now also adapting our efforts as new needs emerge. Despite having laid the groundwork, this has been challenging. As we learn of new federal policies affecting our community members’ ability to live and work in the US, we determine what we can legally do to help. Meanwhile, the legality of many of the new policies is being challenged by high-level judges, but it remains unclear whether the administration will heed court orders, and what the outcome will be for the individuals and families implicated. At each turn, our refugee partners feel like there is nowhere safe in the world for them to live their lives.

Today, unrestricted funds are more important than ever in enabling IWR to pursue our mission. We are watchful for breaking news that could come at any moment, signaling that recent attempts by the Trump administration to revoke our refugee partners’ legal statuses and work permits have been successful, although we hope and pray for the opposite. Should work permits be revoked, IWR is poised to move quickly to cover all basic household expenses like rent, utilities, and food for several families, substantially increasing our expenses until enough time has passed that they are eligible for asylum-based work permits.

IWR efforts so far to combat the damage caused by the administration’s immigration policies include: Know Your Rights presentations, information sessions on designating a trusted adult as a temporary guardian of one’s children in case of detention or deportation, and paying fees for filing asylum claims. In terms of new requests for help, we have yet to see a slowdown, and cuts to resettlement agencies mean refugees in need may relocate to supportive places like Tompkins County in search of help.