Tapestry of Faith: Creating Home: A Program on Developing a Sense of Home Grounded in Faith for Grades K-1

Faith In Action: Refugees' New Homes - Long-Term

Part of Creating Home

Activity time: 45 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • Newsprint, markers, and tape

Preparation for Activity

  • Contact a refugee aid association for a list of needed items. Find out what kinds of donations they might accept.
  • You may plan to bring the donations yourself. Or, you can arrange for a "delegation" of children to bring them, some weeks down the road. If children will come with you, make an arrangement that is convenient for parents as well as for the refugee aid association. Use your congregation's standard permission form. Secure adult volunteers to help with transportation and supervision as needed.
  • Optional: If you are bringing children, try to arrange for someone who works at the refugee aid association to speak with the group about how donations help refugees get settled. Alert your contact at the refugee aid association that the children are studying both the material and the intangible functions a family home serves.
  • Post a blank sheet of newsprint.

Description of Activity

Sometimes people need to leave their family home forever. Wars and natural disasters are the most common reasons.

Ask the children if they can think of any situations like that. Some may be aware of the Gulf Coast hurricanes; others may know a family who came to the U.S. from another country because of a war.

Tell the children that people often give money or time to help refugees create new family homes. Ask the group what they think a refugee family might need for their new home. You may want to remind them about the importance of a threshold, if they have investigated thresholds in Session 1. Maybe a family would like something to decorate the threshold of their new home.

List the children’s suggestions on the newsprint. You need not write down every idea, but be sure to thank all contributors for their ideas.

Complete the list with information you have obtained about the donations a refugee aid association will welcome. Compare with the brainstorm. What needed items surprise participants?

Make a plan for collecting items to provide to the refugee organization. If you have created a permission slip and/or a request for parent volunteers, distribute these now.

See Session 3, Faith in Action: Refugees’ New Homes for next steps in implementing this long-term activity.