Boelens relocating families from Ukraine to Iowa

On a snowy evening in 2000, Angela Boelens was sitting on the 7th floor of the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, taking a break and admiring the view. She realized something.

"I am not in this beautiful office with this great job because I am some sort of a rockstar. I'm here because I was born into a stable environment in a country where there is endless opportunity for people like me."

Boelens started years of volunteering on boards for charitable not-for-profits. In 2014, she added teaching business administration at Augustana to her busy schedule, having developed a relationship with the department as a judge for its annual Business Plan Competition.

In February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. With her board terms expired, Boelens thought, "I have got to help one of these families."

She learned the Uniting for Ukraine program was having trouble finding a sponsor for a family including a daughter with special needs. Having moved to DeWitt, Iowa, Boelens made arrangements for the family to live in her Rock Island house. Soon she brought in a second Ukrainian family.

Then a third.

When a fourth family reached out for help, Boelens was at a loss. She asked her friend Greg Gannon, president of DeWitt Bank & Trust.

"Literally in ponytail and shorts, I popped in unexpected and asked, 'Hey, do you know of any empty houses?'" After hearing her story, Gannon said he would get back to her.

Two days later, he called to report he had raised $420,00 through investors. He told her, "We're going to buy you houses."

At that point, Boelens began to imagine the extent to which they could help Ukrainian families.

With a fiduciary responsibility to her investors, she started a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit and drew together a board of community leaders with the types of expertise needed to successfully integrate the families. The not-for- profit’s name says it all: IA NICE (Newcomer Integration Community & Exchange). The goal is to get people here legally and then help them develop relationships, get jobs, find health care and schools, and achieve self-sufficiency within three months.

So far, IA NICE has brought 18 families to Iowa — 50 people, including 14 children — with another four or five families on the way. Most are here on temporary humanitarian parole.

From clothing donations to hot meals for arriving families, her Augustana colleagues have stepped up. Boelens' students are learning firsthand about developing and marketing a humanitarian not-for-profit, and the unexpected rewards. They are seeing good business ethics at work, and learning about the cultural and economic benefit of supporting immigrants in places losing population, like Iowa. Her students created the logo, and one has an internship with IA NICE.

The rollout and success of IA NICE have drawn attention throughout Iowa and nationally. Boelens travels around the state for at least one speaking engagement every week, working with policymakers at the state and federal levels.

If IA NICE makes it seem easy, Boelens can promise that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is "extremely cumbersome, difficult, every person’s worst nightmare … which is why I am now I am now working with Washington to help with writing some policy."

In fact, "working with Washington" means helping to develop a new category of community-based VISA, giving municipalities the ability to sponsor immigrants and build their economies.

"I am shifting my personal objective to making a bigger difference on more of a national level for millions of non-U.S. citizens hoping to have a chance — a chance — at staying here legally," she said. It means helping other communities take the IA NICE model and run with it, while she broadens her focus.

The stories and photos of Ukrainian families still keep her awake at night; she downplays her own role in creating happier endings for their stories.

"I have done very little more than establish the 501(c)(3) and then coordinate the generosity of big-hearted individuals," Boelens said. "This has been the work of our community."