Twin Cities World Refugee Day

Twin Cities World Refugee Day will be on Sunday, June 11th from 12PM-5PM at Centennial Park in Brooklyn Center. Significant progress has been made in the preparation and planning for this event: Community Advisory Board: The TCWRD Advisory Board has been launched with the purpose of grounding the planning and preparation for this event in the refugee and immigrant community. 5 organizations (African Economic Development Solutions, Alight, Advocates for Human Rights, Southeast Indian Asian Family Wellness, and Huellas Latinas) have received $1,000 stipends for their participation and will receive an additional $1,000 stipend (from additional funding) at the end of the event. This board has met each month since January and has been tasked with the following: A) Story Telling Design- members work together to design a Story Tellingconcept for the TCWRD event that honors and celebrates Twin Cities refugee communities; B) Refugee Artists and Performers- members assist with identifying and finding refugee artists and performers to participate at the TCWRD event through performing arts, selling goods, exhibiting art, speakers, etc.; C) Community Marketing- members market the TCWRD to their communities - spreading awareness and encouraging attendance to the event. This is the first time that CAPI has been able to provide financial support for this important groundwork and we believe in the value of compensating these organizations and individuals for the valuable work they are doing in their communities.Attendance: We anticipate that the number of attendees will be lower than originally expected. The high volume of attendees of the last in-person TCWRD event was largely attributed to being located at Loring Park in Minneapolis, which is a very highly trafficked area. We intentionally moved this event to Brooklyn Center due to the large immigrant and refugee communities who have been this place their home. Although we anticipate a lower number of overall attendees than our original proposed outcome, we believe that we will see a higher attendance from refugee and immigrant communities - the very communities we are intending to celebrate.Conversation Circles: Due to the feedback and planning received from the Community Advisory Board, the Conversation Circles have changed to include 2 panels that will be facilitated during the event. The first panel will consist of established leaders and entrepreneurs in the refugee community and the second panel will be formed by refugees who have arrived recently. Both panels will focus on promoting conversations around the event theme, "Our Journey, Our Story". Panelists will share about their personal journey as a refugee coming to MN and building a life here, reflecting on how the unique journeys intertwine to become our story as a community. ; *Proposed Measurable Outcome Section Locked*

Twin Cities World Refugee Day, held on June 11th, 2023, was a huge success at which we saw the community coming together for a day of celebration, cultural showcase, and connecting with their diverse neighbors. We estimate that around 1,500 community members came through and were able to experience over 13 live stage performances, two panels focused on the refugee experience, diverse food trucks, sports activities, and more. We created space for nearly 50 community organizations and local artisans to come out and share the work they do and the art they create - from schools with specialized support programming for refugees/immigrants to an onsite healthcare bus giving free screenings; from Afghan refugee women artisans showcasing their work for the first time to immigrant owned catering companies showcasing their treats - we were able to platform local artisans for exposure and provide resources to all who attended. From start to finish the event was bustling with activity, proving that events like this are of high interest and value to the community.

Some of the primary outcomes we noted include:

Community Advisory Board
The TCWRD CAB consisted of 5 organizations (African Economic Development Center, Advocates for Human Rights, Alight, Huellas Latinas, and Vietnamese Social Services who stepped in to replace SEWA). Representatives from these organizations joined us monthly for CAB meetings, discussing event progress, connecting us to performers/organizations, and overseeing the creation of the Conversation Circle Panels. This years model went extremely well, with the board actually helping implement these choices rather than just advise, and they were able to put together 2 well rounded panels. In a debrief, CAB committee members all indicted they would be willing and excited to return for future years planning as they saw this event having important connections to all the work their organization do.

Conversation Circles
With the assistance of the CAB committee, we held 2 panels uplifting the voices of 7 community members. The focus of the panels was the refugee experience and how being a refugee themselves or coming from a family of refugees has affected their perspectives on home, community, and their personal and professional journeys. The panels were led be CAB committee members, and after the discussions panels were opened to the participating community members to ask any questions they may have. These panels created a platform for voices and created an opportunity for education and connection for everyone who participated.

Refugee Performers + Artists
We had 13 scheduled live stage performances, 5 solo and 8 groups composed of over 60 individuals, representing refugee communities from South East Asia, Liberia, Somalia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Indonesian, Nigeria + other countries. The artists came with a variety of experiences, some who are known in the cities for their work and others whose first live performance was at the event, featuring performances of traditional dance, spoken word, band performances, and solo singers. Multiple of the performances, including the dance groups from Nigeria, Indonesia, and southeast Asia took time to teach and lead the community through some of their dance styles from the stage, creating interactive teaching of traditional art for all who stepped up. While we had originally had an Afghan group scheduled to perform who fell through before the event, we were approached by representatives of the Afghan Refugee community that had dancers on site, and we were able to create a live space for these dancers to have an impromptu performance, bringing the stage to 14 live showcases. We also had the opportunity to platform a young muralist Lina Al-Sharefree, a soon-to-graduate Afghan student who is pursuing a career in the arts. We worked with her to plan out and bring live painting to the event, giving her experience and exposure for her future endeavors.

Day of Attendance
Through using greeters with attendance trackers, we calculate that we had around 1,500 individuals on site throughout the day of the event. We had anticipated higher numbers in our original proposal, but we had based those numbers on our 2019 event in Loring Park. As this event came after a multiple year hiatus, and moved to a location with much less organic foot traffic, we saw a lower number of participants. This being said, due to the size of the event location it felt full, busy, and well-attended; vendors who tabled/had food trucks indicated they were impressed and satisfied with the numbers at the event. By bringing the event to Brooklyn Center, we are establishing the event with city looking to invest in this type of celebration annually, as well as bring it to a location that is more accessible refugee populations. After seeing this years success and taking in feedback for outreach, we anticipate even higher rates of attendance for future years.

Sending out participation surveys, responding vendors have reported high satisfaction, averaging a rating 4.6-5 out of 5 across categories (5 being extremely satisfied). Vendors indicated they felt their tables were well attended, they liked the location, and they would like their organization to participate in the event in the future. The survey responses included multiple organizations that indicated they would like to to be even more involved in the process in the future, either on the planning committee or bringing performers/panelists. We were also approached by a number of organizations day of and in the weeks prior and post-event asking to be invited for next years event. We had purposefully limited spots this year as we were returning after a hiatus to a new venue, but after this year's experience and seeing the venue in action we anticipate a large spike in the amount of vendors in attendance for 2024.