A Milestone, A Movement: World Refugee Day 2025

A Letter from REACH Founding Executive Director

Dear Friends,

 As we close our Spring 2025 fundraiser, we do so with immense gratitude. Thanks to your generosity, we raised $3,000—a testament to the belief that community and care transform lives. Though we fell short of our initial $5,000 goal, this momentum fuels our continued work in championing resilience and dignity for refugee and asylum-seeking families.

Yes. Today we face painful realities. Families unjustly detained, deportations surging, policies shifting overnight—forces that separate loved ones and threaten the very stability that so many have fought to build. But I want to share another truth: that even amid uncertainty, families are not defined only by struggle. They persist. They raise their children, they build homes, they welcome guests with tea and laughter.

For three decades, I have stood alongside displaced communities, bearing witness to their endurance, their victories, and the relentless waves of policy shifts that shape their daily realities., witnessing their struggles, their victories, and the waves of policy changes that shape their daily realities. I’ve worked with nearly 500 different ethnic communities, supporting newcomers through 9/11 crackdowns, economic recessions, the pandemic, executive orders that dismantled resettlement programs, and now this new wave of uncertainty. What I've learned is that in moments of crisis, fear takes hold quickly—but wisdom, tradition, and community rise even faster.

That’s why today, I want to talk not about panic, but about perseverance.

REACH staff and board members celebrate World Refugee Day, Daley Plaza, Chicago, June 2025.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve sat in many homes across Chicago, registering young people to participate in our upcoming Summer Adventure Camp. I’ve shared tea and coffee with families from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Eritrea, Syria, Morocco, Guatemala, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Ukraine—refugees, asylum-seekers, and humanitarian parolees. And what I’ve witnessed is not despair, but hospitality, gratitude, and hope.

Even amid uncertainty—employment restrictions, legal complexities, and shifting immigration policies—these families are creating homes, raising children, and holding on to their dignity.

At REACH, we believe that resilience is cultivated—not by fear, but by access to stability, play, and connection. Our work is grounded in methodologies that reinforce what families already know: healing is found in movement, nature is a source of grounding, and strength is not the absence of struggle, but the presence of opportunity.

• Experiential Learning & Ecopedagogy – Newcomer youth need spaces to engage in hands-on experiences that foster leadership, curiosity, and belonging.

• Ecotherapy & Nature-Based Healing – The outdoors isn’t just a refuge; it’s a classroom, a sanctuary, and a source of confidence for children navigating instability.

• Positive Youth Development & Play – Play is more than recreation—it is a tool for self-expression, emotional regulation, and leadership growth.

• Asset-Based Community Development – Families bring with them skills, stories, and wisdom. Our work amplifies their strengths rather than focusing on deficits.

We do not center crisis - we center resilience.

• 

  Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at World Refugee Day 2025

• 

  Audience members at World Refugee Day Chicago 2025

• 

  State Senator Mike Simmons speaks at World Refguee Day Chicago 2025

• 

  REACH's Shana Wills & Payman Rajaie pose with State Senator of Illinois Mike Simmons

• 

  World Refguee Day 2025 participants pose with Mayor Brandon Johnson

• 

  Ellie Hease, Samar Mesleh, Shana Wills, & Payman Rajaie pose at World Refugee Day Chicago 2025

Chicago has long been a city shaped by immigrants. And in times of change, our communities step up—to protect one another, to advocate for humane policies, and to create spaces where children can learn, play, and grow in peace.

And today, on World Refugee Day, we reaffirm that every young person deserves the freedom to play, to dream, and to grow in a community that sees their potential, not their legal status.

Just this afternoon, at Daley Plaza in Chicago, amidst the presence of Mayor Brandon Johnson and other public officials, REACH Board Member Samar Mesleh delivered a stirring speech—one that underscores both the urgency of the moment and the hope we carry forward.

Below, you'll find her speech in full. Watch. Reflect. Stand with us. And most importantly - act.

Because solidarity is not passive; it's a practice.

https://youtu.be/V72rEhvQKbo?si=IJsFPAMAVPZI6wiD

REACH Board Member, Samar Mesleh, speaks at World Refugee Day, Daley Plaza, Chicago, June 17, 2025

 

Together, we create spaces where youth reclaim joy, where families shape their own futures, and where dignity is not conditional—it is the foundation on which we rise.

A Luta Continua!

Shana Wills

REACH Founding Executive Director