About us

The South Coast Welcome Corps was founded in 2023 initially by five women participate in a new government progam called th Welcome Corps. For more than 40 years, the Department of State has partnered primarily with non-profit resettlement agencies to provide initial resettlement assistance to newly arriving refugees. This  new program, Welcome Corps. creates new opportunities for American citizens in communities across the United States to engage directly in refugee resettlement. It builds on the existing opportunities to volunteer with resettlement agencies. Upon learning about this new program, Kelly Ochoa, Laura Gardner, Amy Goyer, Elizabeth Murphy and Kari Tyler created the SouthCoast Welcome Corps with the hopes of bringing a refugee family to Fairhaven. 

Throughout the spring and the summer, we met and worked on the paperwork. It is a very long process. By August we had grown frustrated with how slow things were moving so we made the decision to move in a new direction. Because Elizabeth works for the Community and Economic Development Center (CEDC) in New Bedford and our church has had such a long relationship with them, we decided that we were going to look for ways that we could support areas of the work the CEDC does with immigrants in New Bedford. It was not long after we made that decision that the town of Fairhaven announced that the Seaport Hotel would be housing unsheltered families: many of whom would be refugees.

After the announcement made by the town, social media blew up with a lot of hatred about these families coming to live in our town. This was infuriating to us. That is when we went into action to begin planning for the welcoming rally which took place the first weekend in October. Many of people joined us at the rally. Ironically that day, not even one family had even actually arrived at the hotel yet. But we proved to people that Fairhaven is a welcoming place: despite the hatred that stood on the opposite side of the street from us. We outnumbered them easily 2 to 1. 

Today the South Coast Welcome Corps is supporting a number of families from Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua and the United States who are living at the Seaport Hotel. We provide clothing, rides to appointments and general assistance to the families and their chidren. We anticipate having lots of opportunites for individuals and groups to volunteer as we help these families get on their feet. Please check our Volunteer Opportunities page to learn more.