kristin's blog

We’re excited to welcome Danielle Nelson to the team as an Employment Counselor!

Please join us in welcoming Mikyla to MCC Refugee Services as an Immigration Specialist!

We’re so excited to welcome back Katia Iverson Kadogo after few years away. Katia is returning in the role of Manager of Health and Education, a new role that will oversee our expanded programming in that area. In this position, she’ll be providing support to our Intensive Case Management program, Cultural Orientation Workshops, and the Covid Care Navigators network. As of this spring, MCC has taken on coordination of the whole network of partners involved providing covid-related information and support to immigrants and refugees across Minnesota.

We’re excited to welcome Emily Titus, our new specialist in the Intensive Case Management program. Her role involves coming alongside refugees who have a particular vulnerability to develop a plan for self-sufficiency and supporting them in that goal. By the time they exit the program, they can manage their vulnerability— whether that is a medical or mental health need, or something else.

We're excited to have Nou Vang with us this summer as a MSW intern. Nou is helping with our case management and resettlement services. Outside of work, you'll find Nou busy with her daughters who are doing distance learning and her graduate work. 

The Coronavirus pandemic has created uncertainty and a new set of difficulties for living daily life for each and every person. We are so grateful that the Minnesota Department of Health and Refugee Programs Office have recognized how the pandemic has affected refugee and asylee communities. For recent arrivals, the sudden plunge into lock-downs and frequent shifts in how different businesses, clinics, and stores are operating, it’s been especially bewildering.

We’re excited to introduce you to the newest member of our team, John Lamont! John joins us having just graduated with a history degree from Williams College in Massachusetts. He has a strong interest in immigration and environmental law, and the prevalence of immigrant and refugee stories in political news over the past few years has really raised his awareness. John also feels a personal connection to refugee resettlement through his grandfather, who came to the United States as a refugee from Lithuania in the 1950s.

How do we respond to the global refugee crisis?

Pastor Richards closed his sermon with a question: "How do we respond to the global refugee crisis? We will respond one family at a time." Members of Messiah UMC in Plymouth were waiting to be matched as co-sponsors with a refugee family when we contacted them about Achan and her 4 children. They felt a clear calling to come alongside Achan and never looked back.