Get to know us a bit and learn what we do!
Saturday May 4 p, 7pm at the German American Hall
230 Plymouth Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
Join us for a benefit concert for the Welcoming Network with the internationally renowned Persian singers Marjan and Mahsa Vahdat, accompanied on Setar by Atabak Elyasi. Seats must be reserved in advance via $20 minimum donation with PayPal or Zelle. Alternate payment forms can be arranged if needed. Kindly contact megzTmobile@gmail.com for more information and to make your reservation. Learn more here.
Listen to a KSQD's Talk of the Bay interviews with members of the Welcoming Network
December 2023 - The Santa Cruz Welcoming Network Helps Immigrants. Featuring members of an Afghan family.
April 2022 - El Salvador to Santa Cruz -Finding Welcome. Featuring an asylum seeker from El Salvador and two of our volunteers.
April 2021 - Welcoming asylum seekers
View our videos on the Welcoming Network YouTube Channel
What Success Looks Like
Among the families we have helped is that of Pablo and Carmen (names changed to protect their privacy). Pablo was a policeman in El Salvador in a community heavily impacted by gangs. When the gang threatened his whole family, they made the harrowing trip north, spent months stuck at the Mexico border in danger from the cartels that controlled the area, and finally were able to apply for asylum. They were paroled into the U.S. and came to Santa Cruz. Here they connected to the Welcoming Network through a Venezuelan refugee they had met in Mexico who was working with an immigrant support group in the Bay Area.
A retired attorney that volunteers with the Welcoming Network helped Pablo and Carmen write their 12-page Declaration for Asylum. They got work permits. Though they were professionals in El Salvador (Carmen was a social worker), Carmen had to start in a fast–food place on the night shift. The Welcoming Network bought her slip-resistant shoes. Later both of them found better jobs in a factory, working different shifts in order to care for their two children. They are smart and very motivated. Welcoming Network initially helped with the rent, but now the family is proudly covering their own expenses.
We are also assisting a family of seven from Mexico. They fled for their lives after one family member was wounded and a friend killed by an organized-crime gang. They were able to take almost nothing with them. They landed in Watsonville where family members took them in until the landlord demanded that they move out of the over-crowded apartment. So they found themselves in one of the most expensive housing markets in the world with no money and nowhere to go. The Community Action Board contacted us, and between that agency, local churches, and the Welcoming Network, we were able to get them into emergency shelter in a motel. Not cheap, and not at all adequate for the family. After weeks of searching, we found them a house to rent in Aromas, and we provided rental assistance, helped them find other sources of rental assistance, and worked with them on a path to self-sufficiency. It is a wonderful family, and they have been welcomed by neighbors in Aromas who are experiencing, as all of us volunteers are, what an enriching experience it is to work with these immigrant families. Not just being able to help, but also forming bonds of friendship that transcend language and culture. Here again we see what the Welcoming Network is making possible.