Four Lakes Welcome Corps Fundraiser Dinner

media release: On July 21 at 6 p.m. the Four Lakes Welcome Corps, a Madison area branch of the State Department's effort to begin private sponsorship of refugees coming to the United States, will hold a fundraising dinner. It will be held at the First Unitarian Society of Madison (900 University Bay Drive, Madison), and will be a festive and family oriented event. It will feature a speaker from the national Office of Welcome Corps and other guests. Suggested donations are $35 per adult and $15 per child, and all are refugees are invited to attend without charge.

The dinner, which will feature a variety of international foods, will the one of the last steps for the group to complete their application to sponsor a family. Donation are also gratefully accepted through the groups Go-Fund-Me account at fourlakeswelcomecorps.org.

Welcome Corps was established in January 2023 by the Biden administration to expand the sponsorship of refugees, which have in the past have been assisted through Social Service Organizations such as Jewish Social Services and Catholic Social Services, with some federal financial help. Welcome Corps is a new approach where local groups of neighbors collectively fund and manage the integration of new families without government dollars, but with careful monitoring, similar to the successful Canadian Model which our neighbors have been using for several years, called “Groups of Five.” Groups of Five has enabled Canada, a country with a much smaller population, to be to sponsor proportionally far more refugees. It is hoped Welcome Corps will expand the grass roots support for helping refugees in the U.S. without government funds, supplementing the efforts of our social service organizations.

Member of each Welcome Corps group are expected to financially support each refugee family for at least the first three months after their arrival, arranging for housing, furnishings, transportation, education and helping them find work, healthcare and language training. All refugees brought in through the system have been previously vetted by the State Department, and are approved for resettlement.

Refugees coming to the United States are those who are unable to stay in their home countries because of special humanitarian concerns to the United States, and have demonstrated that they were persecuted or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Many have been in refugee camps for years.

For further information please contact Hari Carnes, hari.carnes@icloud.com (608) 338-3479,

or Liz Hachten, lizhachten@gmail.com (608) 438-8542.