Welcome to the Karen Organization of Minnesota

The Karen Organization of Minnesota (“KOM”) welcomes you and hopes this website can provide you with information about the Karen People in addition to providing resources for the Karen and other refugees from Burma living in Minnesota and the United States.

Help KOM Purchase a New Van

Each week, staff at the Karen Organization of Minnesota drive 100-200 miles to help over 40 refugees from Burma get to appointments, English classes, job interviews, community gardens, and much more. Without this service, many newly arrived refugees would be unable to access these vital resources that help them become more self-sufficient and more connected to the community.

KOM currently has one minivan that is shared between all 8 of its programs. The minivan only seats 7 passengers, forcing KOM staff to make multiple trips and limiting the number of refugees they can serve. You can help KOM use gas more efficiently and serve more refugees by contributing to help KOM purchase a 15-passenger van! Your donation is 100% tax-deductible and will literally go a long way in connecting refugees from Burma to many resources in their new community.

Please visit http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Karenvandrive to make a secure donation to this project online. You can also mail a check to the Karen Organization of Minnesota with "van drive" in the memo line to:

Karen Organization of Minnesota
1394 Jackson St., Suite 324
St. Paul, MN 55117

Ta blut doe mah (thank you very much) for your support!

Our History

The Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM) is the first Karen-led nonprofit organization in the country. It has its origins in the Karen Community of Minnesota (KCM), a volunteer-led organization established in 2003 by Robert Zahn, Saw Million, Saw Oo, Saw Nay Htoo, KyawKyaw, Wilfred Tun Baw, and other leaders in St. Paul's growing Karen community. KCM served as the community's governing body, helping newly arrived Karen refugees in the Twin Cities maintain their culture, elect community leaders, and receive assistance beyond the initial resettlement period.

At that time, there was no exclusively Karen-oriented social services agency in the Twin Cities, though Vietnamese Social Services (VSS) did express an interest in serving the Karen and had Karen speakers available to assist clients. The leaders of KCM decided to register as a nonprofit in order to obtaingreater authority to provide employment and social services and resourcesto hire paid staff. In 2005, members of KCM began a three-year training program under VSS to become an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. VSS provided training in social services, computers, and staff management and helped KCM establish their Board of Directors in 2007.

KCM was formally registered as a 501(c)(3) organization in the U.S. in 2008. However, KCM's leaders quickly realized that this status would restrict their ability to send support to families in Burma and Thailand as well as in the U.S. Community leaders and the Board of Directors therefore decided to separate the newly formed nonprofit organization from KCM in order to keep KCM as an unincorporated, volunteer-based association. The Board of Directors and community leaders renamed the nonprofit organization to Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM) to distinguish it from KCM.

In 2009, KOM received two state and one federal grant that allowed them to establish their corporate headquarters in the Vinai Office Park on Jackson Street in St. Paul's North End neighborhood. They hired and trained four paid staff, many of them from their original pool of volunteers at KCM. Since then, they have partnered with many local organizations and nonprofits, including World Relief Minnesota, the Wilder Foundation, MORE School, VSS, and the St. Paul Public School system. Several of KCM's leaders serve on KOM's staff and Board of Directors, and hundreds of KCM members volunteer to help KOM clients. Today, KOM employs 18 paid staff and serves over 1,000 refugees from Burma of all ethnicities every year. KOM's success is due to dedicated community leaders, KCM's Board of Directors and its volunteers, and the Board of Directors of KOM.