A Place to Belong
Nations to Neighbors is evolving to meet the changing needs of immigrants in Billings
On a fall afternoon, 16-year-old Teo stands in the basement of Peace Lutheran Church in midtown Billings, ready to help eight younger students with their tie-dying project.
His help comes in handy just a few minutes into the art project, when volunteer instructor Heather Gaitonde begins to provide step-by-step instructions. One of the boys doesn’t completely understand Heather’s words, so Teo jumps in and translates them into Spanish. The young boy nods in understanding, and the kids start dying their shirts in vivid colors.
Teo, a sophomore at a Billings high school, is employed part time in the afterschool program for Nations to Neighbors Montana (H2N), a faith-based nonprofit in Billings that works with refugees and other legally-present immigrants, both adults and kids.
He also takes a martial arts class twice a week, is enrolled in a mentoring program at H2N and harbors a dream to go to college. That’s something that Teo (his name changed to protect his identity) wouldn’t even have considered last spring.
The youth, who had emigrated from South America to the United States with his mom a few years before, battled anxiety, had few friends, found it hard to get up early for school and his uneven attendance affected his grades.
“And then I met Lacey at the Y, like a sign of God in a random moment,” he says. Lacey Stovall is N2N’s youth services coordinator. She was at the Billings gym to help a few of the youths she works with through N2N’s afterschool program, some of whom had mentioned Teo to her. She introduced herself to him and told him a little about the program.
“I said we have some fun together, we have some rec as a group and we also tutor and help you with your grades,” Lacey says. “And he said, ‘Well to be honest, I think I need that.’”
In one month, Teo turned things around and passed all his classes. He gives all the credit to N2N. “When I started being here, everything in my life changed, like the opportunities I get, the people I meet, the people I get to spend my time with,” Teo says.
The afterschool program is just one of many ways N2N helps people coming from difficult circumstances, hoping for a better life in the United States. Its work has evolved over the past five years since its founding, says Executive Director Nancy Van Maren. But the reason for its existence hasn’t changed a bit.
Nancy often smiles during an interview, but she grows passionate as she points to biblical verses that sum up the group’s mission. Genesis 1:29 says that “we’re all made in the image of God,” she says, adding there’s no asterisk excluding people of color or certain races or nationalities.
“So, we keep trying to respond to needs and trying to be flexible to respond to emerging needs,” Nancy says. Flexibility has certainly been a critical part of the organization’s success since it first began serving people in late 2021.
When Nancy and N2N was first featured in YVW almost five years ago, the nonprofit’s focus was on the Afghan humanitarian parolees arriving in the United States after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. N2N’s work in early 2022 was spent helping the evacuees, in their first three months here, find housing, jobs, enrolling their children in school, getting required medical appointments and providing a cultural orientation.
In March 2024, Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains took over the work of a resettlement agency in Billings. That freed up Nations to Neighbors to shift its focus to other ways to help clients from an expanding number of countries with something Nancy calls “the long welcome.”
“It really takes longer than 90 days to acclimate and integrate in the community,” she says. Language barriers, child care, transportation and continued acclimation to the culture can take a long time to accomplish. For adults, classes were offered to help them hone their English-speaking skills. For parents working toward early economic self-sufficiency, the nonprofit decided it made sense to focus on their children.
“We started our summer immersion and integration program with three kids, one from Syria and two from Venezuela,” Nancy says. “We ended the summer with 12 kids.”
That number jumped to 19 in 2025 and 21 youths from multiple countries this past summer, with each student assigned a mentor to help them succeed. An afterschool program for youth from fourth through 12th grade was introduced fall of 2024 for two different age levels, along with a youth mentorship program for teens and young adults ages 15-24. The summer and after-school programs take place at Peace Lutheran Church.
Another big step came in the spring of 2025, when N2N opened a community center downtown, thanks, in part to a large financial donation by former Mayor Bill Cole and his wife, Ann. Both adult ESL classes and after-school tutoring for youth are now housed at the center, as are the administrative offices and a gathering space.
In October, the center also became the site of a new suite of offices for N2N’s newest initiative, an immigrant legal services program. The latest project, along with a new focus, came out of yet another shift that caused N2N to move in a new direction. In 2025, a series of executive orders suspended the U.S, Refugee Admissions Program, which supported refugee resettlement, and then drastically cut the number of refugee admissions into the country from many countries.
The board of N2N decided to pivot to three new priorities, Nancy says, to serve the clients who are already here really well, to expand the category of immigrants it serves and to offer a new, very needed service.
“Immigration legal services, unlike what some people think, is a way to help immigrants adhere to the law,” she says firmly. “It’s not helping them find a way around the law.”
As of October, H2N was still working to get the service up and running. Under the umbrella of Immigrant Connection, a national organization, it has trained and is seeking federal approval for two accredited legal representatives to begin offering legal aid.
This colorful mural was designed by Michaela Dowen, an artist who loves refugees and who worked for Nations to Neighbors for several months. During that time, she painted the mural, with help from kids involved in N2N, who added their own flourishes to the artwork.
Equally exciting, Nancy says, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, in September, awarded N2N $293,000 over three years to fund the hiring of an immigration attorney. Jeremy White, Senior Program Officer for Civic Engagement & Community Services at the Murdock calls the work Nations to Neighbors is doing critical in supporting refugee families in Billings, adding that “immigrant legal services fill a real gap for this community.”
“This support helps them meet a need that's especially acute in an underserved part of Montana,” he says. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact of safety, stability, and family reunification on individuals and communities.”
N2N is still working to hire an attorney, who will focus both on family and humanitarian issues. In recent months, Nancy has heard from an increasing number of clients who are desperate for legal help, and has had to refer them elsewhere.
“To have (the Murdock Foundation’s) support for this really critical need is huge,” Nancy says. “I can be a really hard worker and I can devote myself to working long hours for the benefit of people, as long as I feel there are other people cheering us on.”
She feels that support coming in many other ways, as well, from community donations and grants, as well as from local churches. Nancy is equally grateful for the many volunteers who help with various aspects of N2N’s work. And she relies on her faith, which gives her strength to help some of the most vulnerable people in Billings and beyond.
“The need propels me, and prayer is super important to me. And community support,” she says. “As soon as I feel like I’m in this with other people, I get huge energy from that.”
Teo, the high school sophomore, is grateful, too, for the help he has received from N2N’s staff and volunteers. One who helped his journey, a retired attorney, mentored Teo over the summer, helping him accomplish goals like perfect attendance at his two volunteer jobs over the summer, consistently going to the gym and learning how to talk with other people and how to make people laugh.
Asked if he’s still working on that last bit, he smiles. “I would say so, yes.” Teo now works part-time for N2N in the afterschool program, and thanks to his mentor’s words of encouragement, is considering going to college. Teo also has another aim in mind.
“My goal now is to be a little part of the big thing, to help other people like me who might be in a situation like I was,” Teo says. “To make it better. So other people can live experiences I live.”
TO LEARN MORE about Nations to Neighbors Montana, go to: nationstoneighborsmontana.org
