The Migrant Ministry is an interfaith effort sponsored by the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park to address the needs of our migrant brothers and sisters. Powered entirely by volunteers, the ministry welcomes asylum seekers living in Chicago shelters and elsewhere on Tuesday and Thursday mornings to select from donated clothing, shoes, blankets, sheets, and toiletries. The ministry also provides breakfast and access to social services, health care, spiritual accompaniment, and immigration support. ESL classes are held three times a week. The Migrant Ministry has also resettled 11 migrant families and 2 single men, accompanying them and helping them to navigate life in the United States.
For more information, contact us at [email protected]
July 7, 2024
Migrant Ministry Update: Immigration Support Services
These posters began to appear around Centro San Edmundo this week announcing the latest program beinning there. A few months ago our volunteers at Migrant Ministry Mornings told us that there were getting many questions about immigrantion that they were not able to answer. With the help of trained volunteers we have started Immigration Support Services on Thursday mornings from 9:30 -11:30. The services by the trained voluteers include:
• Assistance to start the asylum or TPS application
• Translation of birth certificates or other documents
• Change of venue for immigration court dates
• ITIN Applications
Later in the summer we hope to also include a visiting immigration attorney on a rotating basis.
If you would like to volunteer to help with this important new service please contact us at the email below.
• Assistance to start the asylum or TPS application
• Translation of birth certificates or other documents
• Change of venue for immigration court dates
• ITIN Applications
Later in the summer we hope to also include a visiting immigration attorney on a rotating basis.
If you would like to volunteer to help with this important new service please contact us at the email below.
Our Migrant Ministry Mornings on Tuesday and Thursday mornings continue providing breakfast, clothing, blankets, toiletries, and now even more. The Housing Program is working to provide a home for a family of six. We are looking for an apartment and volunteers to accompany them.
June 30, 2024
Featured on WTTW
WTTW’s multi-platform, multi-year initiative FIRSTHAND focuses on the firsthand experience of people facing critical issues in Chicago. This past week, WTTW launched a series on the migrant experience in Chicago and featured one of the asylum-seekers resettled by the Catholic Parishes of Oak Park.
Esteban Garrido is an Ecuadoran artist who had to leave his home country for political and economic reasons. He was living at O’Hare when he found his way to Centro San Edmundo and eventually became one of two single men and ten families whom we have resettled. Esteban is one of the migrant artists who will benefit from the art room at Saint Edmund that we are currently refurbishing.
Here is a link to an amazing and beautiful short documentary on Esteban - https://interactive.wttw.com/firsthand/homeless/migrant-experience/watch?v=esteban. The film is about eleven minutes long, and at about minute five, the Migrant Ministry at Saint Edmund is featured. We also recommend that you watch the other four documentaries capturing the migrant stories of our new neighbors. Take the time to read and reflect on the discussion questions. The discussion questions on Esteban’s story specifically call out Saint Edmund and poses the question about the role of faith centers in welcoming migrants.
Find the series by going to the WTTW website and do a search for “FIRSTHAND Homeless: the Migrant Experience.” You can also find the links on both parishes’ websites.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support of the Migrant Ministry. We welcome your donations, and currently our greatest need is for light summer clothes, especially for older girls.
UPDATED DONATIONS FLYER:
June 23, 2024
MIGRANT MINISTRY UPDATE: ¿Somos una iglesia?
Our asylum-seeking brothers and sisters whom we serve through the Migrant Ministry consistently refer to Centro San Edmundo (the former St Edmund School) as “la iglesia” (the church). For a long time we corrected them, explaining that the church was the building across the street with all the scaffolding, that we were located in the former school building.
“Entiendo” (“I understand”), they would answer…..and then later refer to the Centro again as “la iglesia.”
For a variety of reasons, many of the volunteers who have been helping out at the Centro twice a week for almost a year have stopped attending church. They describe Centro San Edmundo and the Migrant Ministry as their “church.” The work and the mission fill their spirits. They return week after week, often bringing friends and family members along to share the joy and love they are experiencing.
Are the migrants correct when they refer to the Centro as “church”? What do we mean by “church”?
Let’s Google it.
Check out the Google map. The side entrance to the school (which has no address) has been marked with the church symbol and the Spanish words for “help” and “clothes.”
Faith in action is faith. Faith in a loving God who brings us together.
Thank you so much for your ongoing support of the Migrant Ministry. We welcome your donations, especially right now light summer clothes. Please consult
UPDATED DONATIONS FLYER:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P_7tS6lzypWEOK9Is_Mt0HlaMR7Cs8ts/view
UPDATED DONATIONS FLYER:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P_7tS6lzypWEOK9Is_Mt0HlaMR7Cs8ts/view
June 16, 2024
Migrant Ministry Update: Thank you to the high school students.
Yay for the Youth who have added so much energy and enthusiasm to the Migrant Ministry! The Trinity Blazers
earlier this year took up a collection raising in excess of $6,000 for the Migrant Ministry. Wishing to have a morehands-on experience, twelve girls signed up for a Blazer Service Day lastThursday, helping to distribute clothing and other supplies to the migrants.
Oak Park River Forest High School’s (OPRFHS) Huskies for Hope have beenproviding service hours for more than a year. Projects included collecting quarters so migrants could do laundry, helping to pick up bales of winter coats, loading and unloading bags and bags of donated clothing, and volunteering onMinistry Mornings. Next year’s co-presidents of Huskies for Hope will spendthe summer organizing games for older children in the 2nd floor gym.
And three students from an OPRFHS Civic Class as a service-learning project collected donations at a variety of athletic events and presented Migrant Ministry with $600. What a gift the youth are to our ministry! Thank you!
Our Migrant Ministry Mornings are expanding. The most recent count is reaching over 300 people per week for breakfast, clothing, blankets, toiletries. The Housing Program has been asked to provide a home for a family of six. We are looking for an apartment and volunteers to accompany them.
If you would like to volunteer for any of these programs please email us at [email protected]. If you would like to help by donating moneytoward the purchase of items needed, or if you would like to help defray expenses to provide meals and clothing items for the migrants, you can donate
online:https://www.givecentral.org/customizable-online-giving/580/event/38694
or send donations to Ascension and St. Edmund Parish 808 S. East Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60304
Include a note that the donation is for the “Migrant Ministry”. Thank you for your support of the
Migrant Ministry.
UPDATED DONATIONS FLYER:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P_7tS6lzypWEOK9Is_Mt0HlaMR7Cs8ts/view
Thank you for your generous hearts!
June 9, 2024
MIGRANT MINISTRY UPDATE: COUNT ON THE NUNS!
An average of about 250 migrants every week visit Centro San Edmundo in search of clothes, shoes, blankets, towels, jackets, and personal hygiene products. With our new card system, we can control how many of the highly-desired items the visitors can take, but we often have to limit certain items like blankets and towels to one per family per visit.
And still we run out of these highly desired items. Our supply of blankets and towels has been lean for a couple of weeks and last week we ran out completely. Darn! As a ministry, we purchase underwear, socks, and toiletries, but for everything else we depend on in-kind donations.
In steps the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of LaGrange with an enormous donation of blankets and towels, so much that Sr. Jackie Schmitz CSJ (a regular volunteer with Centro San Edmundo) reported that her car was so packed she couldn’t see out the back window. She was afraid she would get pulled over. The volunteers who coordinate the blanket and towel donations were absolutely giddy. It gets cool at night in the shelters but now the migrants seeking blankets will not leave disappointed.
The CSJs know how to get things done! They have an enormous network of supporters and admirers and they know when and how to tap into that network. And didn’t we all learn as children to obey the nuns? THANK YOU, SISTERS OF ST JOSEPH OF LA GRANGE!!!
June 2, 2024
Migrant Ministry Update: Welcoming the migrant children
The housing volunteers of Migrant Ministry have welcomed 17 children since we began finding homes for migrants. These children range in age from 18 years old to newborn including one born here early this year. These children have weathered unimaginable hardships, lack of food and clothing.
The stories are hard to hear:
Being carried through the jungle and the desert, traveling on top of a train being held by mom, living in a van on Chicago streets. We have already heard about sleeping on the police station floors or in tents outside during some harsh weather. They have been exposed to all sorts of infections; one child was recently hospitalized with pneumonia. At least one child with elevated lead levels. They have had to leave behind beloved grandparents and school friends and in some cases siblings who have remained behind with family members. The grief and trauma is hard to imagine.
Being carried through the jungle and the desert, traveling on top of a train being held by mom, living in a van on Chicago streets. We have already heard about sleeping on the police station floors or in tents outside during some harsh weather. They have been exposed to all sorts of infections; one child was recently hospitalized with pneumonia. At least one child with elevated lead levels. They have had to leave behind beloved grandparents and school friends and in some cases siblings who have remained behind with family members. The grief and trauma is hard to imagine.
We have done our best to welcome them, and they are so grateful for the simplest toy. The smiles are so beautiful. You have made this possible with your donations of money, gift cards, clothing and food. Thank you also to the Oak Park and Berwyn schools for the welcome they have extended to the students. Imagine arriving at the first day of school with minimum language skills.
Our Tuesday/Thursday program is expanding. The most recent count has over 250 people coming each week for breakfast, clothing, blankets, toiletries. The English language classes are continuing and have now expanded to Saturday morning.
If you would like to volunteer for any of these programs please email us at [email protected]. If you would like to help by donating money toward the purchase of items needed, or if you would like to help defray expenses to provide meals and clothing items for the migrants, you can donate online: https://www.givecentral.org/customizable-online-giving/580/event/38694
or send donations to Ascension and St. Edmund Parish 808 S. East Avenue, Oak Park, IL 60304 Include a note that the donation is for the “Migrant Ministry”. Thank you for your generous hearts!
The Migrant Ministry in the News
Holy Thursday
The St. Edmund Center in Oak Park Provides Services for the Migrants
View the YouTube Video below
Recently the Migrant Ministry was featured in a news story about the Catholic Community of Oak Park's migrant ministry.
https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/oak-park-migrant-shelter-volunteers/?intcid=CNM-00-10abd1h
Source: CBS Chicago Channel 2