United Way of Weld County VISTA member, Alexandra Walker, is working with the Global Refugee Center in Greeley, CO. She moved to Colorado from her hometown of Akron, OH. While studying abroad in South Africa, she got involved in teaching English at a refugee camp and decided to continue her work with the refugee community as a VISTA. Alexandra started working with refugees by chance. “I wanted to volunteer while studying in South Africa, and found my way to a tutoring program where I taught English and math twice a week,” she says. “Despite having traveled across a continent, the children's resiliency was extremely inspiring and moved me to use what I've been given in life (being an American with a BA, etc.) to try and help them achieve.”

Alexandra assisted in developing an educational event for the refugees called, "Getting Connected: Workshops for Healthy Living and Parenting." This event brought in legal, medical and human services professionals to educate the refugees on the services each offer, how to navigate each system, and making the systems accessible for the refugees. There were six workshops running simultaneously with small groups and a translator rotating throughout the day. Refugees learned about healthcare, women's health, insurance, human services, parenting, and the legal system in Greeley.

Alexandra has established a volunteer program that fosters better communication and relationships between all volunteers and Global Refugee Center staff and is supportive to all volunteer needs. She developed a volunteer manual detailing everything a new volunteer might need to know about the GRC and piloted it at the first Volunteer orientation in January. Since then, she implemented a Volunteer Appreciation that will be a quarterly event and that will also serve as a space where volunteers can air successes, questions, and concerns they've encountered through the semester. The first meeting and appreciation ceremony went quiet well with 20 volunteers present. For GRC staff, she created a volunteer tracking database that allows everyone to have access to contact information as well as the hours each volunteer has worked each month.

Alexandra’s work as an AmeriCorps VISTA at the Global Refugee Center has been very rewarding. She explains, “Refugees' resiliency and continued faith in humanity in the face what are, in most cases, unimaginable circumstances (war, persecution, violence, resettlement in a completely foreign environment where they face a whole new set of challenges) drives to do better every day to implement the best programs I can to make life just a little bit easier for refugees who have been resettled in Greeley. I love working at the GRC because every day there is a new success story; it might be as small as someone finally being able to say ‘Good morning, how are you!’ and understand my response or as big as someone becoming an American citizen but it is truly inspiring no matter how small the step.”