The Utah Section was recognized for its Shalom, Salaam – Tikkun Olam Christmas Day Project, a project that reaches hundreds in need, including 100 refugee families and 350 seniors, as well as residents of area shelters. Shalom, Salaam started nearly 20 years ago as a then-not-named effort to support a local Catholic charity’s work by allowing the charity’s employees to take time off to spend the Christmas holidays with their families. Today, Shalom, Salaam has grown to include more than 300 volunteers from diverse religious, cultural, and educational backgrounds who prepare and deliver packages made up of food, household goods, gifts, and gift cards, all of which are donated by participating retailers or purchased with donated funds.

To make Shalom, Salaam such a success, the NCJW Utah Section leads an interfaith group that includes Muslim groups, LDS and other Christian community volunteers, the Assistance League, a refugee liaison, mosques, synagogues, and teachers and counselors representing grades 6-12 for this annual effort. The project focuses on four primary goals – supporting new refugee families with foods reminiscent of their home country, warm winter clothes, and household goods and products; helping to fill the needs of low-income working families; providing assistance and companionship to combat isolation and loneliness among homebound elderly in the community; and reinforcing Higher Ground: NCJW’s Domestic Violence Campaign by delivering essentials to area battered women’s shelters in the area. The program also reaches out to homeless veterans and adults in rehabilitation shelters. In all, Shalom, Salaam serves close to 1,900 women, children, families, senior citizens, domestic abuse victims, veterans, and people in crisis.

Learn more about Shalom, Salaam – Tikkun Olam Christmas Day Project and other Utah Section events and programs on the section’s website.

Also, Shalom, Salaam was beautifully covered in the Salt Lake Tribune.