Queer Asylum Accompaniment
Queer Asylum Accompaniment was formed in 2019 as a mutual aid network to support LGBTQ+ asylum seekers to find refuge in Sonoma County. We try to fulfill the essential needs of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, whether that's acquiring housing, food, legal support or connecting them to local social services while they go through the legal asylum process.
WHO WE ARE
Queer Asylum Accompaniment is a local community of volunteers dedicated to welcoming and supporting at-risk LGTBQI+ people to start new lives in Sonoma County. QAA assists LGBTQI+ people facing persecution based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and sex characteristics. In a time when there are more displaced people than ever, LGBTQI+ people are uniquely vulnerable due to systemic, state-enabled anti-LGBTQI+ violence. These factors either displace them in their own country or prevent them from escaping harm.
Queer Asylum Accompaniment evaluates each asylum seeker’s situation. QAA may help asylum seekers learn about the US asylum process before they try to enter. We may assist them while they are in detention centers. Once an asylum seeker has arrived in Sonoma County, QAA volunteers work with our partners and direct them to community services to take care of their immediate needs. This may include connecting to shelter housing, food banks, clothing, and community physical and mental healthcare clinics. This is the beginning of the support QAA will continue while fostering the asylum seeker’s goal of independence. QAA will accompany the asylum seeker until asylum is granted and through the next stages to citizenship. The emotional support we provide our compas is just as important as our connecting them to basic needs.
CONTACT US
(707) 225-1302
OUR HISTORY
In 2017, the North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP) and a few other Sonoma County organizations were meeting to respond in solidarity with Sonoma County’s immigrant community, who were being threatened by the newly elected federal administration. These groups requested that NBOP provide coordination and structure and they all formed the North Bay Rapid Response Network. NBRRN developed a 24-hour emergency hotline with a legal observer network. An accompaniment part of this response was developed and critical for those hotline callers who were detained after an ICE raid and for those impacted and left behind.
Queer Asylum Accompaniment was formed in 2019 when members of North Bay Rapid Response (NBRRN) accompaniment teams realized that LGBTQI+ asylum seekers had specific needs and would benefit from a designated LGBTQIA+ team.
GET INVOLVED
DONATE
FUNDS
Funds are needed so that asylum seekers may make a life for themselves here in the North Bay.
Make an online donation to QAA here: tinyurl.com/QAARRN
OFFER
A RIDE
QAA volunteers provide transportation to therapy and medical appointments, meetings with lawyers, trips to food banks and accessing services.
MAKE NEW FRIENDS
Consider contributing your time by taking members of the Queer Asylum Accompaniment team to a movie, dining out, attending a community event or participating in outdoor activities.
You don't have to speak a second language to become a volunteer.
RESEARCH
Asylum, refugee, and immigration laws, rules and situations as well as services available to asylum seekers are continually in flux. The monthly Sonoma County NBRRN Accompaniment Team meetings and updates help keep all the Sonoma County accompaniment teams current, so that we in return can best serve the asylum seekers in our care. Federal, state, and local laws change and/or are confusing, so simplifying the language is important. Help asylum seekers obtain whatever is available to them.
DONATE
GIFT
CARDS
Donate gift cards from a variety of local businesses:
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Grocery stores and restaurants to supplement what is offered at local food banks.
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Drug stores for personal products, medication, etc.
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Clothing stores to cover personal wardrobe needs
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Personal services such as hair salons, nail salons and hair removal specialists
Send your donations to:
PO Box 425
Forestville, CA
95436.
OFFER
IN-KIND
SERVICES
Offering your expertise in a particular area creates communities of care. We invite attorneys, medical doctors, dentists, therapists, ESL specialists and hairstylists to support new asylum-seekers to adjusting to their new community in Sonoma County.
FUNDRAISE
Help QAA organize events, such as documentary screenings, online auctions, yard sales. QAA requires a continual stream of funds to provide for asylum seekers until they can become independent. We’re open to new ideas, so brainstorm with the team and we’ll go about keeping the QAA coffers full.
BECOME
A HOST
A host provides a safe place for an asylum seeker to live for their initial stay. QAA has connections that may be able to assist the asylum seeker with travel, so they arrive here safely and legally. QAA will offer our services of accompaniment and work with our many partners to make it possible for the asylum seekers’ needs to be taken care of. If you become a host and there are issues, you can ask them to leave at any time and have no legal or financial obligation. QAA will be there for any negotiations needed.
PARTNERS
The Rapid Response Network (NBRRN) provides a 24-hour hotline to immigrants. NBRRN's mission is to mobilize an emergency response network, serve as witnesses to immigration enforcement actions, uphold the rights of immigrants, and provide services to affected North Bay residents.
The Sonoma County Secure Families Collaborative was established by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors to meet the needs of our immigrant community’s increased challenges due to the changes in federal immigration policy and the North Bay wildfires and protect our entire community's economic and cultural vitality.
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa was founded in 1954. Over our nearly 70-year history, Catholic Charities has answered the call to serve our most vulnerable sisters and brothers, addressing root causes of the toughest issues facing Northern California.
Jewish Family and Community Services is guided by Jewish values and in collaboration with the diverse communities we serve, JFCS East Bay contributes to the resilience of communities, families, and individuals through advocacy and comprehensive support services at every stage of life.
