In August of 2021, we watched on television as U.S. and NATO forces pulled out of Afghanistan after over 20 years of war with the Taliban and thousands of Afghan families fled the country. Concerned about the refugee families who would soon be arriving in the U.S., and specifically about the teens among them, we reached out to the International Institute of Los Angeles (I.I.L.A.) and volunteered to help welcome new refugee families arriving in Los Angeles, meeting with families to distribute cell phones and debit cards provided by I.I.L.A. 

By December, the I.I.L.A. had connected us with a large number of families with teenagers living in temporary housing in a hotel in Santa Clarita. We met with the teens living in the hotel  every Saturday to hang out, play pick-up games of soccer or board games, and answer any questions they had to help them make sense of their new country. Over the next few months, we learned about the differences between us–their background, schools, culture and family traditions–but also about all the things we had in common, things like soccer, drawing, coding, Ariana Grande and Harry Styles, and Spiderman to name a few. We provided a Saturday evening Iftar meal for 100 Afghan refugees at the hotel and later distributed homemade desserts for Eid to celebrate the end of Ramadan. These connections represent how our first Teens at the Door chapter came to life. Click HERE to learn more about our Santa Clarita Chapter.

In the midst of all these great connections, Russia invaded Ukraine, and over 5 million Ukrainians fled their country and became refugees.

As our newfound Afghan friends began moving on to permanent homes across California and teen refugees began arriving from Ukraine, it became clear to us that the relationships we had forged in Santa Clarita were meaningful and represented work that was necessary to support refugee teens migrating all over the U.S. And thus, Teens at the Door was born when we launched our website and started the work of supporting the creation of Chapters across the U.S. and connecting them to the local resources and institutions they need to be successful.