Resiliency Services
Some of our most innovative work happens at the intersection of our programmatic goals, where spaces are created for community to flourish. Although the situations many refugees and immigrants find themselves in are vulnerable, they themselves are full of strength and tenacity.
World Relief Western Washington's resiliency programs seek to support and multiply the inherent resiliency of refugees and immigrants by building bridges to resources and community. Our work seeks to change the systems that suppress and oppress communities and create vulnerable situations.
Your partnership is an investment in a strong and welcoming community.
Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden
The Paradise Parking Plots Community Garden is a public space in Kent, Washington that exists to empower refugees, immigrants, and the local community to improve food access, build community, and foster economic independence.
The garden is also a practice of environmental stewardship through the incorporation of a depaved parking lot, rain gardens, and water catchment systems into the garden design. After the completion of capital improvements, the garden will clean and divert over a million gallons of stormwater each year!
Commercial & Teaching Kitchen
We completed construction on a commercial & teaching kitchen! The kitchen will:
- Expand the economic impact of the community garden by increasing access for the refugee, immigrant and urban communities to food production space.
- Provide educational food-related training for families and youth.
- Provide neutral community space for majority-culture community members to interface with immigrant community members, over food.
- Provide low-cost commercial kitchen space for immigrant caterers to rent.
- Serve as space to develop microbusinesses.
Environmental Education
Paradise Parking Plots and its accompanying Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) provide a unique space where people from diverse backgrounds can learn, connect, and grow together.
Our environmental education programs are offered through three key avenues:
- - Equity & Sustainability Internship
- - Family-Based Programming
- - School-Based Learning Experiences
Each experience is NGSS-aligned and designed to cultivate social-emotional skills, spark career exploration, foster environmental stewardship, and strengthen belonging and resiliency.
Women's Sewing Class
World Relief's Women's Sewing Class creates a space where refugee women learn valuable skills that can be applied to a new job, practice English, and build deep friendships with each other and the volunteers that work with them.
Some of these women have gone on to get full time sewing related jobs, some of them are in child care jobs, and several have enrolled in higher lever English classes upon completion of the course. Some of them became primary earners in their households during the pandemic by making masks for the community.
Donate Now
Your generosity makes a transformative and lifelong impact. When you give, you are investing in our welcoming community.
