Miry's List is a nonprofit organization providing a mechanism for people to directly help new arrival refugee families with the incredible challenge of resettlement in the United States.
With practical support and joyful friends waiting to welcome them, resettling families are set up to thrive through Miry’s List's wrap-around program that extends long beyond government support. We're building cultural bridges, nurturing new friendships among neighbors, and transforming the way American people engage in welcoming new arrival families.
Since 2016, Miry's List has engaged 256,000 American people to support over 1,000 families who have come through the Federal Refugee Resettlement program from countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Moldova, Syria, and Ukraine.
Through Miry’s List’s online wishlist platform, 25,159 housewarming gifts have been sent directly to newcomer families.
Our Work
Refugee families come to the United States seeking a safe haven from violence and persecution in their home countries. They leave behind family and friends, as well as virtually everything they own. Many Americans, seeing these families in their communities, wonder: What can I do to help? Miry's List provides a mechanism for people to directly help new arrival refugee families with the things that they need to get started in their new lives – from diapers to beds to cleaning supplies and toiletries.
Our Purpose
Imagine walking into a job interview or the first day at a new school, trying to put your best self forward, but your back hurts because you've been sleeping on the floor. This is the reality for many resettling refugee families in the United States. Government agencies provide limited assistance that does not always meet the families' needs and comfort. Miry’s List programming is designed to alleviate the effects of a traumatic migration experience by offering friendship, comfort, and connection for families and individuals who left friends, family, and familiarity behind.
Our Approach
Our approach is divided into three chronological pillars that start from our families’ first steps off the plane:
Survive
Respond to Urgent Needs
Taking the time to learn about each families' most pressing needs, focusing on safety, function, rest, comfort. Brand new arrival families are in “survival mode,” often living in motel rooms, jet-lagged, quiet, and scared. The goal in this initial phase is for each family member to rest, relax, and do whatever they need to do to feel safe. Services offered in Survive include: furnishings, emergency supplies like diapers, wipes, cell phones, car seats.
Hive
Expand the Support Network
Surround a family with the things, people and programs needed to thrive in a new country. Friends and helpers participate in direct, community-based support. Our compassionate community surrounds our families with the people, services, and things they need to rebuild their lives. Services offered in Hive include: Wishlist creation, English tutoring, playdates and social gatherings, shopping trips, career development and mentoring.
Thrive
Help Families to Grow Roots
A sense of belonging is established. Focus on service, community building, personal development and continuing a virtuous cycle of giving. In the Thrive phase, our families feel safe, hopeful, and supported. Thriving neighbors are part of a community support system, where they are both giving and receiving. Services offered in Thrive include: Service opportunities at Miry’s List, specialized workshops and event.
Our Method
Miry's List uses crowdsourcing and social media to connect people like you, who want to help, with new refugee families who have needs that are not completely met by the organizations that sponsor them. Each family has unique needs – some have small children, elderly grandparents, or members with disabilities. So each family has a unique "list" of supplies that they need to get started. Here's how it works:
We hear of a newly arrived refugee family and go meet them in their first home – typically a scantily furnished (or unfurnished!) apartment, or even a motel room.
Working with the family (and often a translator), a volunteer listmaker constructs a list of items, prioritized by need.
This list is published as a Target Wishlist to make it available to generous donors who want to help by purchasing specific items for specific families. The items are then sent directly to the families.
Take a look at The Lists now to see the families we are currently helping, and to help fulfill their lists! It's that simple to help a new refugee family.
We also support refugee families through delivery of donated furniture and other large items, and special events like the New Arrival Supper Club.
How We Started
Founder Miry Whitehill shares the story of how Miry’s List began on the TedX stage in this talk titled How To Be A Good Neighbor
It all began with a Jumperoo. Miry Whitehill, a stay-at-home mom with a background in digital marketing, happened to meet a family of new arrival refugees from Syria. Having children of the same age, they felt an instant connection.
Miry posted the very first list on her personal Facebook page to collect basic childcare and household supplies for the family. It took two weeks to crowdsource and deliver all the items needed to turn the new arrival family's house into a home. Invigorated and inspired by her list's impact on this family, Miry set out to meet more new arrival families in the hope of helping them similarly.
