Volunteers Needed

How you can support refugees!

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SOLD OUT

Hallelujah Anyhow is sold out! Thank you all for your support!

Who We Are

All Saints' Refugee Ministries was founded in 1994 by All Saints’ Episcopal Church Atlanta to create relationships of welcome between volunteers and families who have come to the United States through the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program. Volunteers help families transition to life in the United States by providing welcome and access to needed educational, medical, and cultural resources. Refugee Ministries holds relationships with about 75 families at a time from East and Central Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Nepal, Burma/Myanmar and more.

Raising Hope for Refugees

Today, Refugee families face an urgent crisis. Federal financial support, which once provided six months of assistance, has been reduced to just one month. As a community, we choose to stand in solidarity, to offer hope, and to make a tangible difference in their lives. Together, let’s raise money for refugee families and celebrate the 30-year legacy of All Saints’ Refugee Ministry.  

Volunteer Opportunities


We have an urgent need for Atlanta-area volunteers to help refugees transition to living in the US. Our refugee resettlement teams are truly amazing experiences for volunteers. We ask volunteers to commit to one 90-minute in-person reflection meeting and one volunteer act (typically 2 hour and involves providing transportation to a family) per month for three months.
A team of 15 volunteers works together with the same refugee family for 3 months, and they get to know each other and collaborate through the meetings which take place at All Saints' in midtown Atlanta. We have both secular teams and inclusive Christian teams. All Saints' welcomes people regardless of any belief or identity. Your first step is to email to schedule a one on one 30-minute zoom to chat about it more in depth.

Upcoming Events


Annual Refugee Ministries Picnic

  • Saturday, March 15, 2025
    11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
    Milam Park in Clarkston

    Please join us for our annual Refugee Ministries picnic. We are excited to introduce our six new families in addition to the other 35 families we support at this picnic. This is a great time to invite someone that is new to Refugee Ministries to learn more about potential volunteer opportunities. RSVP to  , sign up for specific volunteer acts below, or just join us! 
    Sign Up to Volunteer Here

Hallelujah Anyhow: Evening of Celebration

Annual Swimming Buddies program

The children look forward to our annual Swimming Buddies program all year long! From May-September, we offer once a month pool parties at the homes of wonderful hosts who do this every year so the parties feel like family reunions. All Swimming Buddies are from 11am-1pm, (except for the lake trip which is from 10 am-5pm) and include lunch. We need volunteer assistance with providing round trip transportation and water supervision in the pool. Many of our children don’t know how to swim yet, but we provide floaties and water safety devices and this program readies them to learn.

Welcome a New Family

The current need to welcome new families

The number of refugee families admitted to the United States from 2019-2023 was dramatically reduced due to an executive order banning resettlement and the pandemic. Refugee agency funding is attached to arrivals so one agency had to close, and the four others had to downsize and reduce their staffs. With the fall of Afghanistan and the invasion of Ukraine, in addition to increased numbers of arrivals, the need for volunteer welcome of new families is greater now than ever before.

What do we do to welcome a new family?

We are delighted to partner with two refugee agencies: New American Pathways and Inspiritus. These wonderful agencies take care of most of the families needs including: housing, employment, immigration paperwork, school registration, medical referrals and more. Our job is to help provide hospitality through introducing them to the Atlanta area and help them feel welcome, safe and at home in their new country. Many families experience isolation, depression and loneliness upon arrival to the US, and we can help!

We ask volunteers to sign up to offer 3 acts of hospitality for the same family to be completed in 6 months. These three acts will create an ongoing relationship with you and the family. These acts are two hour volunteer commitments (not including transportation time), and our four most common acts are:

  • Taking the family to a grocery store and helping them shop (reimbursed)
  • Bringing the family to our wonderful children’s clothing ministry here at All Saints’, called Threads, in order to get clothes for the children.
  • Bringing the family to the Atlanta zoo (We will meet you with membership and snacks/beverages for you trip)
  • Bringing the family to a group event with All Saints’ Refugee Ministries such as our Swimming Buddies program. (See next section)

If you need more ideas for fun outings, here are some suggestions!

We currently have new families from Colombia, Senegal, Burma/Myanmar, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. Our goal is to provide welcome activities to 25 new families annually.

Zoom Tutoring

How our program began

Refugee Ministries began a zoom tutoring program in September 2020 in response to pandemic online learning and the isolation experienced by the children in our program who had to stay home while their parents were at work. We found that this platform and our online materials were more effective than in person tutoring because of the distance between midtown and Clarkston so we have adopted it as a permanent program.

Who we serve

We currently have 50 students and tutors in grades 2nd through 12th with a few adult students. We have two tracks: English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), most of whom are beginners (this will be the majority of students we admit) and Academic Support in Reading and Math for students who have been in the US longer and speak English. We admit volunteers in grades sixth grade and up and are happy to provide service hours.

Our directors

We are grateful to have four directors who are teachers and education specialists in Special Education and ESOL (Brooke Minney, Texas), Reading (Michelle Hirschfeld, South Carolina), Debbie Leinweber (ESOL, Colorado), John Leinweber (Math, Colorado). They offer their time in new student and tutor placement, student assessment, materials training and tutor support. No experience in tutoring is necessary because our directors will provide you with the materials, training and support you need.

Our trimesters

In order to give our students and tutors needed breaks, we work on a trimester system and take school breaks and summers off.

We ask tutors to give 12 sessions (reflected by our trimesters) at the same day and time each week. Preferred tutor time slots are Mondays-Thursdays at 4pm, 5pm or 6pm. We provide the zoom account that tutors are required to use. At the end of 12 sessions, tutors are welcomed to close the tutoring relationship or renew for another session. If the tutor needs to close, and the student wants to continue, we will get a new tutor for the student. At the beginning of each session we only admit 5 new tutors and students due to the challenges of setting our families up with technology and the time needed to orient the tutors and students. New tutor orientation slots for our next trimester will be available July 17-July 28th.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What kind of training do I need to be a volunteer?

All volunteers must complete a background check which is paid for by All Saints’. Volunteers who work with children must complete a two hour online course called Safeguarding God’s Children which is about the detection and prevention of childhood sexual abuse. Welcoming a Family comes with a 40 minute orientation and when providing transportation to Inspiritus families, an online form.

2. What if I am with a family that doesn’t speak English?

We recommend you do your volunteerism with another English speaking volunteer, and we can connect you with one if needed. We have access to phone interpreters and will help you schedule your events. We have an interpretation app that connects to actual people to help if you need something during an event.

3. Do you take furniture donations?

Unfortunately we are no longer able to pick up donations of any kind. The Welcome Co-Op furnishes apartments for families in all 4 agencies. They take their donation requests online:
https://www.welcomeco-op.org/

4. What do you need donations of? (Tax letters provided for all donations)

  • Cash donations for emergency food and outings can be made at
    www.allsaintsatlanta.org
    Choose the Give tab
  • We also welcome donations of laptops with the following characteristics:
    8GB RAM or more
    128GB SSD or larger
    Core i5 processor or better
  • Car donations are the most important thing that can happen for a new arrival family and we are happy to accept cars that can be deemed road worthy by a mechanic for $500 or less
    Uber/Lyft or Amazon cards can be emailed to

5. Do you have to go to All Saints’ or be Christian to volunteer with Refugee Ministries?

Absolutely not! About 30 % of our volunteer population isn’t church going. We welcome volunteers and families of all faiths (and none) as well as all cultural and national identities, genders and orientations.

Questions? Want to get involved?

Contact Louisa

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