What does it mean to be a good neighbor? Pittsburgh’s Sloane Davidson would say it’s welcoming newcomers into communities like hers. As the founder and CEO of Hello Neighbor, Davidson and her team work tirelessly to improve the lives of refugees and immigrants by matching them with dedicated neighbors to guide and support them in their new lives.
The nonprofit marks several huge milestones this year with their five year anniversary, a federal government contract that enables them to directly resettle refugees upon arrival into the U.S., and securing over a million dollars in funding. When I interviewed Davidson, our conversation was not only enlightening in terms of learning about her work, it also transformed into an eye-opening history lesson about the past century of refugee resettlement.
Amy Shoenthal: How did you come up with the idea for Hello Neighbor?
Sloane Davidson: I met a Syrian family living in my neighborhood in 2016 and we became friends. I learned so much about what support they received from refugee resettlement and where they still needed guidance. More than anything, I saw a family who was trying to rebuild their lives from scratch and had so many questions about how things work here. The more time I spent with them, the more passionate I got about connecting everyday Americans with their new neighbors.
Shoenthal: What obstacles did you face while you were building it?
Davidson: The biggest obstacle in building a nonprofit is fundraising and measuring impact. I knew we had a great idea but I needed to find out how to capture the data and the stories in a way that would help Hello Neighbor grow. The way I tackle challenges is to put my head down and do the work. I believed really deeply in this mission and I just kept going.
We have found really impactful ways to tell positive stories through our core values: a refugee first mindset, dignified storytelling and cultivating community. When you put those three together, it creates a framework for authentic storytelling. We don’t want to force people to talk about what they had to flee from and what they had to go through to get here. I know that human curiosity wants to hear part of that story, but it is not our place to do that. It takes people a while to process trauma and we don’t want to interfere with that. That’s why all of our stories are based on refugees’ time in Pittsburgh and what they’re experiencing in this moment while looking to their future dreams and goals.
We have to be careful when telling refugee stories to the media because for most people around the world who have lived under authoritarian regimes, the media comes from the government or the state and it's dangerous. There's no positive storytelling. There's no Today's Show happy moment, no People Magazine or Oprah.
Shoenthal: Why such a focus on storytelling? How does that address the organization’s goals?
Davidson: We do talk about impact and our numbers and what we’ve accomplished. Stories are super important though. Last year the Ad Council did a campaign that we were a part of called “Belonging Begins With Us.” As part of that campaign, they did a lot of research, which uncovered the fact that 75% of Americans don't interact with a refugee or immigrant on a day to day basis. Most people live in rural or suburban America. The more affluent somebody is, the smaller their circle tends to be, from income level to literacy to beliefs.
One of the most valuable things Hello Neighbor offers is the ability to give people a face, a name, a story that might help them see refugees and immigrants in a different way. That’s important when for the majority of Americans, no matter their stance on immigration, the concept is a theory, not an actuality. We're trying to use our stories to create conversations, which hopefully sets people on a learning journey.
In terms of the organization’s goals, we’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished. The majority of nonprofits don't get above $100,000 in revenue. Hello Neighbor has reached a million dollars at our five year mark. It's a really big deal to get to that scale. When you look at what society has been through, with the last administration, racial inequity and Covid, to be able to take an organization from my dining room table in my hoodie to a full time staff of 12 people, five part time contractors and more, it just shows that the need for our services is growing. I think it's critically important for people to recognize the core role that nonprofits play in America and in our communities.
Shoenthal: What are you most excited about right now?
Davidson: We received our first federal contract to directly resettle refugees. This is the first time we are directly preparing a first home, doing the airport pickup, and helping people start their lives from scratch.
Shoenthal: At the risk of sounding naive, that isn’t already what you’re doing?
Davidson: We get that a lot! Hello Neighbor’s existence for four and a half years was focused on helping people who were already in Pittsburgh. They had to already be here for a minimum of three months before we got involved. Our core programming has been mostly support services like our mentorship program, programs for moms and babies, remote tutoring, any direct assistance or partnerships we've done with food banks and diaper banks, things along those lines.
The reason Hello Neighbor was founded was because of how the federal government’s resettlement system works. There are nine federal agencies that oversee resettlement in the United States, and they have local partners to support the first 90 days. That's the way our system has been since 1980 when it became a formalized federal program.
Until 1980, refugees operated within a very informal system. So after World War Two, essentially the whole world in the Geneva Conventions said, ‘we messed up. We didn't have a system for accepting refugees and we allowed this to happen.’ I'm sure you know the story of the SS St. Louis, the boat carrying Jews from Europe to the U.S. in 1939 that was turned away at every port. It started in Cuba, then went to Florida and all the way up to Maine and eventually had to turn around and go all the way back to France. More than a quarter of the people on that boat died in the Holocaust. So we recognized as a world and as a society that we needed to do better. The system, however, was still informal.
That's why you hear a lot of stories from our grandparents’ generation saying how when someone would come from the old country, they would help them with a casserole and make sure dad got a job in the mine and mom got into the garden club. The kids got enrolled in school and everyone was fine, because that's how it was working. But in 1980, the process was formalized and the federal government said the President is going to ensure a certain number of refugees are accepted into the country each year. So every year since 1980, there’s been a decision made guaranteeing a number of refugees that will be allowed into the country.
The process starts internationally, originating with the UN. First they’ll get a country assignment. Then they’ll get a state and a city assignment. Sometimes they choose where they want to go and sometimes they have no choice. And then a local resettlement agency welcomes them.
Receiving a federal contract is a really big deal because Hello Neighbor is now in a position where we have a number of refugees we will be directly bringing to Pittsburgh each year – a rust belt city with an aging and declining population. A city like ours needs new people, especially people who are going to be starting their lives from scratch and moving their way up. Their kids will be the first in their families to go to college as they strive to achieve, flawed as it may be, the American dream.
Shoenthal: What’s next for Hello Neighbor?
Davidson: It's a huge responsibility and an honor to be the first faces our newest neighbors see when they arrive in Pittsburgh. When I do an airport pickup, I meet people with their eyes about to pop out of their head. There are a lot of emotions going on when landing in a place completely unseen. They may have never been on an airplane before, maybe they never saw an escalator, a tram, an elevator, or even a paved road. They may have never been in an apartment with a locked door, with running water, a freezer or a stove. We're talking about an entire world that could be brand new for people.
I wait for a little extra after I’m done showing them around and doing what’s required of me during the safety check in, to try and wait for them start to relax a little bit. I wait until they start to come out of their shell. I want them to know that I see them, that we’ve got this. I want to acknowledge that this is not necessarily the end of their problems – starting over in America is likely to bring on a whole new set of them. But we want our new neighbors to know they’re not alone.
The people enrolled in our programs have a strength and perseverance and positive attitude that can't be matched.
I'm also just really excited to see our families really thrive. We have families buying homes for the first time, starting community college, kids graduating high school and being the first in their family to go to college. It truly takes a village. I feel like we're just getting started and can't wait to see what the future holds.
