World Refugee Day - Join the Celebration!
Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS) invites all of our blog followers and friends, and the general public to a World Refugee Day Celebration on Saturday, June 23, 2012. The festivities will be held this year at Columbus International High School (3940 Karl Road, just a bit south of Morse Road). The event will take place from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm and feature food, live performances, and artwork from the various refugee communities in central Ohio. Admission is free.Columbus boasts a growing refugee community. In 2011, CRIS resettled refugees from Bhutan, Somalia, Burma, Iraq, Eritrea, as well as several additional African countries. The World Refugee Day Celebration honors the contributions of these new Americans to the global diversity of Central Ohio. During the celebration, an art gallery will showcase the work of members of the Columbus refugee community. Locally prepared ethnic cuisine will be available beginning at 12:00 noon, and performances demonstrating cultural music and dance traditions will begin at 1:00. CRIS recognizes The American Red Cross and Columbus International High School for their generous support of this event.Each June, World Refugee Day is celebrated around the world by civic groups and partners of the United Nations' Refugee Agency, UNHCR. CRIS is an independent non-profit agency and the local affiliate of Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministries. Our mission is to help refugees and immigrants reach and sustain self-sufficiency and achieve successful integration into the Central Ohio community. CRIS offers a variety of services to this group of individuals including: employment preparation, acculturation, ESOL-English for Speakers of Other Languages, case management and legal services.If you would like to offer your time and/or talents to assist us on World Refugee Day, please contact Hannah at volunteers@cris-ohio.com.WRD 2012 flyer-FINAL