The St. Louis American picked up my article in the spring issue of The Commonspace.
Posted under The Commonspace by Brian Marston on Fri., Apr 7, 2006 at 12:12 PM
International Institute
Not many people know how wonderfully rich and diverse St. Louis' culture is or where how to take part in international activitites in our city.
The International Institute of St. Louis is a social service agency that serves 500-600 refugees and over 7,000 immigrants from around the world each year. Whether it's picking up refugees from the airport and bringing them to an apartment and showing them how it works (much like in the documentary "God Grew Tired of Us" - highly recommended!), offering English classes, job preparation courses, citizenship preparation classes, finding employment, helping newcomers start a business, acquire loans or start a savings account, the Institute strives to make the transition easier. We utilize hundreds of volunteers who give a countless number of hours to help refugees and immigrants move from dependecy to self-sufficiency. In return, immigrants and refugees help St. Louis economically and culturally and make it incredibly ethnically diverse.
To learn more, please visit our blog at www.iistl.org/blog