ICDI Essentials
Sharing essential goods with new arrivals and providing for their needs
Give To Our Wishlist
An up-to-date list of the supplies we need most can be found on our Amazon Wishlist (see below). The supplies are safely delivered directly to our storage unit automatically – the shipping address is already entered.
Donate items on our Wishlist
All donations can only be shipped via Amazon. We do not accept drop-off donations at our office.
To inquire about additional in-kind donations, please contact the program director, Sarah Ankunda sankunda@icdichicago.org.
History & Background
The Chicago Immigrant Transit Assistance (CITA) program was the original program and continues as the ICDI Welcome Team, which accompanies recently-arrived asylum seekers in the Chicago Greyhound bus station who have a bus layover or are arriving at their final destination in Chicago. Similarly, the ICDI Essentials and Case Management programs assist post-transit immigrants with settling in by providing essential items and services.
ICDI Welcome Team volunteers greet individuals and families being released from immigration detention across the U.S. However, most of the asylum seekers we serve are processed and released from detention facilities at the U.S./Mexico border. By the time asylum seekers arrive at the Chicago Greyhound station, they often have spent at least two days on the bus and likely have not had a proper meal until met by ICDI volunteers.
ICDI
Welcome
Team
Dedicated volunteers center the well-being of asylum seekers through accompaniment and provision of essential items and services such as warm meals, weather-appropriate clothing, interpretation services, transportation assistance, and referrals to local organizations in final destinations.
ICDI ESSENTIALS TEAM
Equips post-transit immigrants that are settling into the Chicago land area with essential items and services such as clothing, mattresses, bedding, furniture, and appliances.
Despite being in the custody of the U.S. government and detained by ICE, asylum seekers are released with inappropriate clothing. For example, individuals have been released with the same clothes they wore during their migration journey. Even if someone was detained in the heat of the summer, they are likely released in significantly colder weather with limited-to-no warm clothing. We witness that asylum seekers are dehumanized by being forced to wear a combination of torn clothing tattered by migration and often misfitting, jail-issued. We aim to dignify asylum seekers’ migration journey by providing a fresh change of clothes.
"ICDI Welcome Team Volunteers Live The Future We Wish To See: Celebrating And Welcoming Asylum Seekers With Humanity And Support."
How to Support the ICDI Welcome Team:
VOLUNTEER
Would you like to join ICDI in the mission of serving displaced people arriving and settling in Chicago? Consider joining our diverse group of volunteers!
ICDI volunteers provide direct service to asylum seekers coming through the bus station in downtown Chicago and organizing sessions at our Essentials storage warehouses downtown and in Elmhurst.
WELCOMING TEAM
Our Welcoming Team schedule is
Monday - Sunday:
5:45am - 7:45am
ESSENTIALS TEAM
Flexible, two hour shifts between
Monday - Sunday:
10:00am - 5:00pm
SUCCESS STORIES
We welcomed about 20 people from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mauritania and Angola. There were people traveling alone, a family of three, a family of five and a group of four men. They needed water and snacks and baby food.
Several just needed help finding the gate where their bus would depart. The four men needed to purchase new tickets because they JUST missed their connecting bus.
The family of three was waiting for someone to pick them up sometime after 10 am.
The Angolan family and the man from Mauritania needed a place to stay so we sent them in an Uber to the Police Station. Sarah told us we could give them sleeping bags, but in the last minute rush, we forgot to get them.
Impressive to us was the helpfulness of these strangers to each other. After we helped someone, that person would refer someone else who needed assistance.
And their expressions of gratitude for the little we do is close to overwhelming. Something that surprised both Gerry and me was that the parents would not let their children accept coloring books or other kid toys.
On February 3, 2023, the family fled Ecuador due to threats from the local mafia and gangs. They refused to participate in drug distribution, which led the gang leaders to threaten their lives. Forced to give up their inherited land, the family faced ongoing harassment even after leaving their home. At 3:00 a.m., Mrs. Tigasi and her husband urgently fled with their young children, leaving everything behind. Their attempt to escape in a speeding taxi resulted in an accident that endangered Mrs. Tigasi’s life. She sacrificed everything in Ecuador to protect her children. They have other children in Ecuador who are also hiding from the gangs. In mid-April, they entered the United States, where they faced detention by immigration agents. After being released, it took them a week to get an airplane ticket to Chicago. Currently, the family is under the care of a host family in Chicago, supported by the Illinois Community for Displaced Immigrants (ICDI). They are in the process of applying for asylum, with all expenses
covered by the host family and the ICDI. The ICDI will continue to provide case management assistance until further notice. Your support is crucial in helping this family seek safety and protection in their new home.
During the months of February and March 2023 I continued to receive from ICDI different types of benefits like the following below:
Thanks to ICDI financial aid ($300 per month) I was able to buy most of the food I need to keep healthy despite the fact that many products have even doubled their prices because of inflation. Nonetheless, this aid was highly appreciated as it allowed me to keep nourished as I continue the process to get socially integrated in my new host community in Chicago and prepare my asylum file with my lawyer. I have been able to volunteer also at Pastor Gary Cox’s Office to prepare the Church services’ programs and CTA Ventra Card monthly recharge: The 75-USD-plan allowed me to use
the CTA trains and buses of both the Blue and Orange Lines in order to attend my in-person appointments with my lawyer in Chicago’s downtown as well as to share in my volunteering program with REACH (Refugee Education And Adventures Challenges) NGO in the round trip from and back home.
During the months of February and March 2023, I continued to receive from ICDI different types of benefits like the following below:
Thanks to ICDI financial aid ($300 per month) I was able to buy most of the food I need to keep healthy despite the fact that many products have even doubled their prices because of inflation. Nonetheless, this aid was highly appreciated as it allowed me to keep nourished as I continue the process to get socially integrated in my new host community in Chicago and prepare my asylum file with my lawyer. I have been able to volunteer also at Pastor Gary Cox’s Office to prepare the Church services programs and related documents.
This financial aid continues to be critical for my survival as I fail in being hired in local businesses as I still don’t have an employment authorization document. It might be relevant to report that in April I am planning to submit my asylum application in order to be able to apply for my employment authorization document 5 months after the asylum application has been submitted, which would take roughly a couple months to be issued thereafter.
H is from Costa Rica, Y is from Venezuela. They arrived in Chicago in the autumn of 2022 with the first wave of busses of asylum seekers from Texas. Y was 4 months pregnant. Initially, they stayed in one of the hotels offered by the State of Illinois. After a brief stay, they decided to leave the hotel and move into the shelter system thinking they could find work and get established. The couple moved from shelter to shelter because most homeless shelters only take men or women but not both. For some time, they lived separately. Early in February, Y went to an emergency room to give birth to their son. The family could be together in the hospital room for just four days and were released to the city’s shelter system.
ICDI received a call from a partner agency that a semi-retired couple had heard about their situation and were interested in taking them in. ICDI immediately contacted the family and interviewed them virtually. After visiting the home, ICDI expedited the placement process and arranged to move the young couple in with their host family who live fifty-three miles north of the city of Chicago. They young family has a separate apartment in the house, giving them privacy with protection. They are receiving wrap-around care and case management from ICDI. In the picture below, ICDI staff are on the left, the young family is in the middle, and the couple providing the home are on the right. Little David is 28 days old in this picture.