Building a Better Community for Female Immigrants in Green Bay
About us
The United ReSisters are a group of young Somali-American women who have a passion for creating a more tight-knit Green Bay community, and overall a more peaceful world. This group was established in the Spring of 2017 by Diana Delbecchi, Courtney Maye and Katie Stockman as an attempt to create a space for these young refugee women in the Green Bay area.
In its early years the group served as a place for our members to build strong relationships with other women in the community, increase their knowledge and support for higher education goals and to create art as a pathway for personal growth and storytelling. The group's intention is to shine a light on the growing presence of Somali youth in Green Bay and elevate their voices and stories to create change. In 2017, our group painted a beautiful mural that pays tribute to the member's collective Somali identity while telling the story of their individual travels through various countries to arrive here in Wisconsin. Then in 2019, the group wrote and published a book titled The First Winter which is a collection of their trailblazing stories, reflections, conversations, letters, lists, and poems about their experiences as refugees and journeys to the United States. Ever since it was published our group has been asked to present their stories and share their voices in many spaces across the state of Wisconsin.
WHO WE ARE
The group chose the name the United ReSisters as a way to portray the ultimate sisterhood: bonding together to resist hate, prejudice, and misunderstanding while doing so through education, resilience, and love.
OUR NAME
OUR MISSION
We are a group of women focused on building a better community for female immigrants, particularly young teenagers in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It is our mission to pursue activities that foster positive change and increase the self-esteem and confidence of the young women we work with while advancing gender equality and human rights for all.
Our model focuses on three key areas:
Access to Higher Education Information, which includes having current college females attend meetings and serve as mentors to the young women. Often it results in working with the young women on college applications, scheduling college tours, assisting with FAFSA, and much more.
Social Change and Community Building through Art, this is the piece that will be most visible to the wider Green Bay community. It includes using art as a medium to focus on social justice issues both internationally and locally. Through the arts, the young women are able to express themselves, envision a more inclusive community and communicate in ways that will invoke discussion and, hopefully, result in resisting hate and prejudice.
Personal Growth and Confidence Building, this means we make a deliberate attempt to get the young women out of their comfort zone to try new things, learn new skills and build confidence in their own abilities and voices. It also includes celebrating their own Somali identity and helping them share that with others.