Our neighbors have been welcomed in incredible ways because of your generosity and support! Thank you for all the ways you have partnered with and supported this mission. All year-end giving will ensure our neighbors continue to have access to the people, resources, and learning opportunities that make Oklahoma City a place of belonging.

Make 2022 a year of welcome!⁠ ⁠ $708/year ($59/month) provides comprehensive community support programming for one neighbor.⁠ ⁠ $1,080/year ($90/month) provides student support programming, including tutoring, school liaisons, sports programs, & mentoring, for one student.⁠ ⁠ $3750/year ($312/month) makes a neighborhood based English class possible for one year.⁠ ⁠ Give online at www.thesperoproject.com

Thank you to Oklahoma Libraries for the donation of children’s books, coloring books, colored pencils, and Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, Vietnamese, Spanish to English picture dictionaries to us. We are grateful for such amazing resources for our new neighbors!

[APA]⁠ After the sudden evacuation of individuals from Afghanistan, the Afghan Parolee Assistance program was created to offer refuge to forcibly displaced people. Through this program, Oklahoma City will become home to at least 1,000 new neighbors from Afghanistan. A resettlement effort of this magnitude is truly historic and will require unprecedented levels of support to ensure success for everyone. Spero has been and will continue to do absolutely everything we can to ensure each individual is welcomed with absolutely everything they need to thrive after such a sudden and traumatic journey to becoming our neighbors.⁠ ⁠ [Traditional Refugee Resettlement]⁠ After years of decreased refugee resettlement by the federal government, we are thrilled the anticipated number of individuals through the traditional refugee resettlement program will increase exponentially this year--up to 10X recent years! Spero believes after years-- and often decades-- of living in limbo after forced displacement, our new neighbors deserve every good thing.

From the Spero family to you, we wish you a very merry Christmas!

In May 2021, Spero was proud to partner with Flourish OKC (@all.flourish) to curate An Examination of Welcome. Refugees, former refugees, and asylum seekers living in Oklahoma City generously created the content for this exhibit through recorded interviews, creation of original artworks, and construction of interactive exhibits. Neighbors shared about their journey, offered their wisdom and insight, expressed what they want others to know about the refugee experience, and offered inspiration and dreams for a welcoming city where all flourish. You can still view a digital version of this exhibit online at www.flourishokc.com.

Spero proudly partners with leaders in the resettled refugee and asylum-seeking community. Following the lead of those who have a big vision for their communities, Spero is honored to play a part in local and global initiatives that impact lives all over the world. Whether seeing the creation of a women’s empowerment program at Sudan Hope Project (sudanhopeproject.com) or joining an incredible local effort to organize in solidarity with Myanmar following a tragic coup, Spero has been inspired, mentored, and moved to action by partnering with the refugee community to dream bigger dreams together than we ever could alone!

Beyond invitation, welcome holds space for each person to become their fullest selves by giving and receiving. Welcome offers a deep belonging to one’s self and one’s community. While there are many opportunities for new neighbors to learn about language, culture, education, and more through Spero’s programming, it is core to the organization that every component also offers deep opportunities for neighbors to offer their wisdom, insight, and expertise to Spero in return. We are proud and honored to have welcomed new neighbors in the following ways this year.

As we near the end of another year of welcome, the Spero team is humbled and inspired by the way each of you, our partners, have joined together to create a city of belonging for our new neighbors. Through the year, we’ve held firmly to three core values that drive all we do together. We hope you receive our deepest gratitude as you join us in seeing how these values came to life through your partnership!⁠ ⁠ The Spero Team

We are honored to be a grant recipient from @legacycollective! We cannot thank them and their donor community enough for supporting the work of Spero to make OKC a place of belonging for our new resettled neighbors. Thank you, Legacy Collective! #LegacyCollective #LegacyCollectiveGivesBack

So thankful to receive a grant from the Welcome Fund, an initiative of @welcome.us, supporting our work of making OKC a place of belonging for new Afghan neighbors.

It’s #GivingTuesday!⁠ ⁠ Through your generosity and support, our new neighbors are welcomed in incredible ways! Your donation ensures that our neighbors have access to the people, resources, and learning opportunities that make Oklahoma City a place of belonging. ⁠ ⁠ 2022 will be the most significant year of resettlement in Spero’s history. Help us to continue to Welcome, Partner, and advocate. ⁠ ⁠ Give online today at www.thesperoproject.com. ⁠