Help Connect Refugees To Their New Neighbors
We've supported 250 children in New York from 26 countries with over $125,000 worth of clothing donations.
What We Do
Our New Neighbors
Families in our program come from 26+ countries including Chad, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Ghana, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan & more.
Matching
We match newly-arrived refugee and asylum-seeking families with local "partner" families who have slightly older kids.
Donations
Each local NYC family commits to send or deliver 2-3 clothing hand-me-down packages per year to its partner family.
Our Team
Shoshana Akabas
Founder, President
Shoshana Akabas holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University and has worked with refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. and Middle East.
Emily Moore
Co-Founder
Dr. Emily Moore holds a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center. She is an English teacher and Brooklyn-based mother of two.
Amany Soliman
Program Manager
Amany Soliman holds a masters in public policy and has a background in business and accounting. She moved to the U.S. from Egypt in 2018.
ABOUT US
The New Neighbors Partnership matches refugee, asylee, and asylum-seeking families with local New York City families who have slightly older kids and can pass on hand-me-down clothing donations on a regular basis. This initiative provides ongoing support to families who usually receive (at most) three months of government agency assistance when they first arrive in the United States.
Kids grow quickly, families have continuous need for children's clothing, and New York City non-profits lack the manpower to run continuous clothing drives and sort donations, as well as the space to store donations - with the NNP, clothes go directly from the families that have them to the families that need them.
Additionally, more than half of clothing ends up in a landfill within a year of being manufactured. Ensuring clothes are reused protects our environment from needless waste.
Hand-me-down partnerships have been established between New York families and newly-resettled families from Afghanistan, Guinea, Ukraine, Central African Republic, China, Ghana, Egypt, Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Chad, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Burkina Faso, Russia, El Salvador, Tanzania, Guatemala, Haiti, Nigeria, Venezuela, and Azerbaijan.
Partners
Lo & Sons donates beautiful new backpacks and weekender bags to our refugee clients
The Awesome Foundation has provided generous grant support
The Pollination Project has provided generous grant support