DENVER – Colorado and the Rose Community Foundation have established a fund that will put money toward Colorado organizations that will provide support for the estimated 1,500 Afghan refugees expected to come to the state over the next year.
Money donated to the Colorado Afghan Evacuee Support Fund will be put toward grants for helping Afghans who were evacuated late this summer as U.S. forces left the country resettle in Colorado.
“These courageous new Americans will be an asset to our state and I encourage my fellow Coloradans to support them in any way they can,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a statement. He wrote to President Biden several times this year telling him Colorado was ready to welcome Afghan refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders.
According to the Rose Community Foundation, which is sponsoring the fund, grants will also go toward health and mental health services, legal services as those resettled here look at ways to get permanent residency “and other forms of needed assistance,” the foundation said.
Colorado estimates around 1,500 Afghans will be resettled in Colorado – most of them in the Denver metro area, where many Afghans already live.
People can make one-time or recurring donations to the fund by clicking here. Checks are mailable to the Rose Community Foundation; more information can be found here.
“We invite Colorado companies, foundations, and individual donors to join us in supporting the organizations that will be providing critical services to families and individuals being relocated to Colorado from Afghanistan,” said Rose Community Foundation President and CEO Lindy Eichenbaum Lent.
