The conservative US state where refugees are being welcomed with open arms

Refugees are not a common sight in out-of-the-way Montana, but Missoula resident Mary Poole and her book club decided to make a change by welcoming fleeing families into their homes.

After helping a donor unload a box of pots and pans in the reception area, Mary Poole settles in behind her desk in a cramped office. “I used to make jewellery,” she laughs, referring to her life more than a year and a half ago, before she became executive director of Soft Landing in Missoula, Montana.

Today, Poole runs the small non-profit, which helped persuade the International Rescue Committee to establish a refugee resettlement office here last year. At a time when resettlement is politically contentious, the non-profit is providing support to refugees from across the world in a politically conservative state where only 107 refugees have been resettled since 2001, the lowest total of any US state except Wyoming.

Soft Landing’s focus is as much on the Missoula community as on incoming refugees. The organisation, which consists of two part-time staff members, coordinates volunteers to support incoming refugees, including families that help place refugees to their new home and connect them to their neighbours. The organisation also promotes dialogue among community members on the sometimes uncomfortable topic of resettlement. Their mission is to ensure the Missoula community is both welcoming and informed.

Poole isn’t alone. Montana is an expansive rural state with the third lowest population density in the United States (7.1 square miles per person) and less diversity (89 per cent white) than all but seven states. These factors contribute to the state’s reputation for being culturally parochial and politically conservative.

Since August 2016, 117 refugees have been resettled in Missoula from Iraq, Syria, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Democratic Republic of Congo – more than the total number resettled in the entire state over the past 16 years. And hundreds of local volunteers have joined Soft Landing to make them feel welcome.

When asked why she decided to lead the organisation, Poole responds thoughtfully. “It came about because of the picture of a dead child,” she says. “I don’t feel like there was a choice. It was something so much deeper than a thought or a decision.” After seeing the photo, Poole reached out to women in her book club to process the crisis in Syria. Everyone had seen it, she recalls. “As mothers, we couldn’t stop thinking about it.”

The dialogue sparked a group exchange over email, and eventually someone asked, “what can we do about this?” Together, the women had the idea to bring refugees across the world to Missoula, but they had no idea where to begin. So they began talking to their neighbours. “The idea passed around to a couple friends and then a couple more. Pretty soon we had a strong group of [interested] people,” Poole says.

By October 2015, Poole had teamed up with several more community members to establish Soft Landing and secure fiscal sponsorship from a local non-profit. Volunteers then began reaching out to US-based resettlement agencies, eventually reaching Robert Johnson, former executive director at the International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) office in Seattle.

“We knew from experience that Missoula was a good town with a lot of international awareness,” Johnson says. “It’s a favourable political environment that’s unique in Montana.” The existence of Soft Landing made his decision even easier. “The big bonus was there was a local group that was willing to provide support,” Johnson says. “That’s a unique and attractive quality.”

Today, when refugee families arrive in Missoula, volunteer mentors meet them at the airport and stay in close contact with them from day one. Soft Landing’s services are client-driven from that point forward.

“It’s a huge choose-your-own-adventure,” says Poole, who recruits volunteers to do everything from teaching driver’s education and English courses to providing childcare and financial counselling. After a recent CrowdRise campaign netted $32,000 (£25,000), the part-time director hopes this adventure will continue for the volunteer driven organisation.

Source: Positive News