Karen Organization of Minnesota

09/02/2026

Thank you to Roseville Area Schools for hosting us! Before the school year is in full swing, our staff were invited to lead a training on Karen (Knyaw) culture, history, and resettlement to the Roseville Area Schools district staff. 🎒📓 Over 300 staff members across all schools and departments in the district attended.

We are so grateful for this opportunity to help the district better serve Karen families and students with a deeper understanding.❤

Want to learn about Karen/Knyaw culture and history? Come to our next online workshop on Friday, October 16th or invite us to present to your group! Find more info and how to sign up here: https://mnkaren.org/history-culture/karen-culture-presentation/

📸Pictured from left to right:
Roseville Area Schools Karen Cultural Liaison, Sar Htay;
Roseville Area Schools Karen Cultural Liaison, Sar Htoo;
KOM Executive Director, Alice Buckner;
Roseville Area Schools Associate Superintendent, Maura Weyandt;
Roseville Area Schools Karen Cultural Liaison, Mya Phyu; and
KOM Program Director for Health & Social Services, Than Than Kyaw.

09/01/2026

Are you ready to build a rewarding career? ⚒👷‍♀️
The Apprentice Ready+ program helps students discover their strengths by recognizing the value of their education, work, and life experiences. Through hands-on learning and personalized career guidance, participants gain the confidence and skills to pursue meaningful careers in the United States.

➡Sign up to join the next class that starts in September! More info & how to sign up at https://mnkaren.org/programs/employment-services/adult-career-pathways/apprentice-ready/

📖 Read the full article to learn how Apprentice Ready+ is transforming lives and creating new opportunities for students like Keng: https://mnkaren.org/news/building-pathways-through-apprentice-ready/

🤝 Looking for a meaningful way to give back? Join KOM as a mock interview volunteer and help students build confidence for life-changing job interviews. Your support can open doors to new opportunities and brighter futures.

Thank you to the Roseville Adult Learning Center for their long-term partnership!

08/24/2026

Karen teens learn traditional weaving in St. Paul, helping preserve a cultural practice passed down through generations in Southeast Asia.

By

Use the link in our bio to read more.

08/21/2026

We were honored to participate in the 76th Anniversary of Karen Martyrs' Day last weekend and reflect on the history of the Karen community.

Karen Martyrs' Day began as a commemoration of the anniversary of the death of Saw Ba U Gyi (one of the early leaders of the Karen National Union) in 1950. This day also honors all who have fought for the Karen in remembrance of the Karen resistance. ➡Learn more about Karen history and culture on our website at https://mnkaren.org/history-culture/

Thank you to the K.C.M "Karen Community of Minnesota" for organizing this year's event in Saint Paul.

08/20/2026

"Alice Buckner, Executive Director of the Karen Organization of Minnesota, said the end of TPS is another stressor on a community that has faced decades of displacement."
"The Karen Organization of Minnesota has had several clients who were subjected to Operation PARRIS interviews..."
“The PARRIS interrogations have been the thing that is the most triggering or upsetting to our clients, because that brings them right back to the interrogations to get out of the Thai refugee camps,” Buckner said.

🤝Thank you Sahan Journal for covering pressing stories in our communities. Please read the article below to learn about what is happening right now in our state and across the nation.

🤲Please consider giving to help us continue to respond to urgent needs and keep uninterrupted services for Karen families, and all refugees and immigrants in Minnesota: https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/NIZ3WXo3nMZ5JTS1WuyYeg

https://sahanjournal.com/immigration/tps-cut-myanmar-minnesota-karen-community-trump-immigration/

08/17/2026

ℹ️Do you want to learn more about Home and Community Based Services or HCBS? နအဲၣ်ဒိးသ့ၣ်ညါအါထီၣ်ဘၣ်ဃးဒီး HCBS ဧါ?
We will be in west-central Minnesota this Saturday, August 22nd for an awareness session in Willmar!
📆 Aug 22nd, 10AM - 12PM
📍 Willmar Public Library - 410 5th St SW, Willmar, MN

Do you or anyone you know need support living independently? Would you or the person you know qualify for Medical Assistance (MA)? မ့ၢ်နလိၣ်ဘၣ်တၢ်ဆီၣ်ထွဲမၤစၢၤ ဒ်သိးနကပၢဆှၢသုးကျဲၤနတၢ်အိၣ်မူ နကစၢ်ဒၣ်ဝဲအဂီၢ်ဧါ? နမ့ၢ်ပှၤတဂၤလၢ အကြၢးဒိးန့ၢ် (MA)တၢ်အိၣ်ဆူၣ်အိၣ်ချ့အတၢ်မၤစၢၤဧါ?
💞If you answer “yes” to both of the questions above... you may qualify for the HCBS programs.
လၢတၢ်သံကွၢ်ခံခါအဖီခိၣ် နတၢ်စံးဆၢမ့မ့ၢ် “မ့ၢ်” .... နမ့ၢ်ပှၤတဂၤလၢဒိးန့ၢ်တၢ်ဆီၣ်ထွဲမၤစၢၤဘၣ်ဃးဒီး HCBS အတၢ်ရဲၤကျဲၤသ့န့ၣ်လီၤ.

Need help applying or have questions? Contact the KOM office at 651-788-7593 or email: [email protected]
လိၣ်ဘၣ်တၢ်မၤစၢၤ မ့တမ့ၢ် တၢ်သံကွၢ် မ့ၢ်အိၣ် ဆဲးကျိးဘၣ် ကညီကရၢမံၣ်နံၣ်စိထၣ် (KOM) လၢ
📞ဆဲးကျိး - 651-788-7593
📧ဆှၢလီၤ email ဆူ- [email protected]

08/17/2026

For anyone expecting or who recently had a baby, you are welcome to join this Community Baby Shower this weekend! 🍼🧁🌼

Join CollegeBound, Ramsey County, and DIVA Mom's for our annual Community Baby Shower! Are you expecting or recently had a baby, then this event is for you! There will be free food, games, and raffle prizes. Please join us!

08/12/2026

Today, August 12th, 2026, marks the 76th Anniversary of Karen Martyrs’ Day, ကညီမၤထူရၤမုၢ်နံၤပှဲထီၣ် (၇၆) ဝီတဝီ.

We honor the history of this day which commemorates the anniversary of the death of Saw Ba U Gyi (one of the early leaders of the Karen National Union) in 1950. This day also honors all who have fought for the Karen in remembrance of the Karen resistance.

This Saturday August 15th, the community will gather in Saint Paul, MN to reflect on the history of the Karen people and honor the leaders who have guided their struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma (Myanmar), organized by the Karen Community of Minnesota. We hope to see many of you coming together to celebrate community and to pass on traditions to the younger generation.
More info about this year's Karen Martyrs' Day event at www.mnkaren.org/events


Photo from Karen Martyrs' Day in Minnesota in 2018.

08/11/2026

This spring, KOM youth partnered with Theater Mu to create and perform original mini-plays exploring identity, belonging, and hopes for the future.🎭 Through storytelling, students shared powerful personal experiences and dreams for the future.

💬 "I added a few lines from my imagination. I wanted to tell a story with the lines I had and showcase what my family went through." - Moo Paw, student.

Since 2023, this partnership has helped youth build confidence, strengthen their creativity, and develop meaningful connections, both on and off the stage. 📖 Read the full story:
https://mnkaren.org/news/youth-voices-take-the-stage-through-theater-mu-partnership/

❤️ You can help make opportunities like this possible. A gift of $25 supports our programs and helps maintain our 🚐 two community vans, providing reliable transportation so refugees can access programs that promote economic, social, and cultural well-being.
Make a donation 👇:
https://secure.lglforms.com/form_engine/s/NIZ3WXo3nMZ5JTS1WuyYeg

Every gift, no matter the size, helps create opportunities for refugee youth and families in our community. Thank you for being part of this journey.