Northeast Ohio Friends of Immigrants (NEOFI) is a standing committee of AMIS and is focused on raising awareness, promoting education and advocacy for the legal and human rights, dignity and well-being of immigrants in our community. Its goals are to raise awareness and promote education with other organizations, religious groups, and the community at large. We advocate for legal and human rights by providing information to our members regarding lobbying Congress and Ohio lawmakers for policy improvements and immigration reform legislation. We support the well-being of immigrants in our community by providing material support such as temporary housing, clothing, home furnishings, diapers, etc. and our fabulous volunteers provide transportation (to doctor appointments, school, etc.), tutoring, food delivery, moving assistance, and friendship to immigrants who need this support.

NEOFI’s Steering Committee is currently composed of Rachel DeGolia, Bob Dunn, Anne Hill, Janet Kolesar, Frank Osborne, Marcia Silver and Linda Whitman. Among their tasks is to select the speaker(s) for the monthly meetings, evaluate past speakers, and update the committee and members on recent events in the community.

NEOFI meets via Zoom on the first Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm. Past speakers at the meetings include Patrick Kerns, Re:source Cleveland; Brian Hoffman, immigration attorney; Megan Meister, USCRI Cleveland; Jennifer Cohen, The Ohio Democracy Project; Joe Cimperman, Global Cleveland; Steve Volk, History Professor Emeritus, Oberlin College and Pastor Luis Vizcarrado, Refine Church Cleveland.

If you would like to join us at our monthly meetings, please sign up for our email list by clicking here. To become a volunteer, please fill out this google form.

We hope you will join us in advocating for and supporting our immigrant neighbors during this incredibly scary time for them in our country.