This year's Concert for Refugees returns amid recent federal policies that have paused funding for organizations that support refugees and immigrants.
Those policies led to Church World Service Lancaster, a faith-based nonprofit that helps resettle refugees in the area, furloughing more than 60 of its staff members, with the possibility of permanent layoffs. That's around two-thirds of its staff.
In turn, that means a lot of recently settled refugees and immigrants locally have lost funding for rent, electricity, bus passes, resources for them to get jobs and more, says Rwamucyo Karekezi, community organizer with Church World Service. Karekezi was not furloughed.
The Concert for Refugees returns at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at Tellus360, 24 E. King St., Lancaster. It's a semi-yearly event that raises money for those who rely on Church World Service, and it was held annually from 2016-2019, and then again in 2022.
The concert features headliners Corty Byron and Leo DiSanto, though its lineup is chock-full of local musicians, including the Nielsen Family Band, Steven Courtney, MOE Blues, Robin Chambers, Liz Fulmer and many more. Admission costs $15, and concertgoers must be 21 years old or older, unless accompanied by a chaperone aged 25 years old or older.
"This concert means a lot," Karekezi says. "It means the community stands with each other."
Karekezi moved to Lancaster in 2018, after spending many years living at a refugee camp in Rwanda while waiting for it to become safer in his native country, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A case manager helped him acclimate to life in the United States, including showing him how to find a job, do laundry and cook without the use of firewood, among many other occupational skills.
"If there was no case manager to show me how to use all of that, I don't think I'd be who I am today," Karekezi says.
The lack of funding for Church World Service is a dire issue, Karekezi says. When filing a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act filing, also known as a WARN notice, Church World Service cited President Donald Trump's Jan. 24 executive orders, Realigning the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program and Reevaluating and Realigning U.S. Foreign Aid. WARN notices are generally required when an employer with 100 or more employees plans to lay off 50 or more of them.
Funds from this concert will go directly towards providing services to local refugees, Karekezi says. There is a separate GoFundMe page to support Church World Service's furloughed workers.
Tellus360 prides itself on being able to host these types of community-based events, says Bill Speakman, Tellus360's events manager.
"The work that CWS does in this community is a source of personal pride for me as a Lancastrian," says Speakman in an email with LNP|LancasterOnline. "I have incredibly fond memories of the past events we've done together and I'm very glad to be part of it again this year."
Karekezi encourages those with a willingness to learn, and to "be positive more than negative, with good intention and not bad intention," to attend the concert and celebrate each other's differences through song and dance.
"This concept brings people together from different backgrounds," Karekezi says. "We work. We're neighbors. We're parents. We are like other people."
