MULTICULTURAL FESTIVAL

2024 | Multicultural Festival: Imagine

Once again, we partnered with the City of Richmond’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement (OIRE) to host the Multicultural Festival at Dogwood Dell. Thousands of newcomers and Richmonders enjoyed a day of food, culture, and performances from around the world. A community resources fair highlighted the services of 55 local Ethnic Based Community Organizations, non-profit agencies, faith communities, and government entities. Performances were kicked off by a special presentation from Senator Ghazala Hashmi who honored ReEstablish Richmond with SR 44, a commendation on our 10th Anniversary of serving the Richmond community.

2023 | Multicultural Festival: Imagine

This was our second year of collaborating with the City of Richmond’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement (OIRE) to host the Multicultural Festival. Attendees enjoyed performances by 15 varied cultural groups, interacted with 40 local support organizations, and sampled cuisine from an array of immigrant-owned businesses. This annual event is one of our favorite ways to invite our neighbors to learn more about resources in the Richmond community and celebrate World Refugee Day and Immigrant Heritage Month.

2022 | Multicultural Festival: Imagine

We joined forces with the City of Richmond’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement (OIRE) to host the Multicultural Festival. The festival brought together thousands of newcomers to learn more about resources in our community in celebration of World Refugee Day and Immigrant Heritage Month. The event was especially joyous after the necessary restrictions on group gatherings during the pandemic over the previous two years.

2021 | Neighborhood Parades

We took our annual community resources fair on the road, visiting three neighborhoods where our clients live. Together with volunteers and community partner organizations, we conducted a festive car parade in honor of newcomers who now call Richmond home. Some additional ways of welcoming newcomers through this event included providing a mobile vaccine clinic, a workshop on belonging, and funding to cover the cost of invitations and parade decorations.

2020 | Virtual Celebration

World Refugee Day 2020 looked and felt very different since we couldn’t gather together in person this year. Even with COVID-19 restrictions, however, we remained committed to honoring our resettled neighbors. Our virtual celebration included a series of videos that shared information about resources related to education, employment, public benefits, transportation, health, immigration, and more — all in the primary languages of our clients. We also shared a video of World Refugee Day celebrations from previous years.

2014 — 2019 | Community Resources Fair

In collaboration with community partners and a host of volunteers, we celebrated World Refugee Day by gathering the resources that our clients requested most often, providing transportation to and from the event, and ensuring interpreters were on hand so that attendees could fully engage as they chose. In 2019, this event brought together 814 clients, 142 volunteers, and 413 vendors to learn more about Richmond’s resources and one another.