In August 2021, in response to the evacuation of 75,000 Afghan refugees from Afghanistan, Elizabeth Davis-Edwards, a long time advocate for refugees, quit her job as a marketing executive and formed WelcomeNST to engage communities to help resettle refugee families. More broadly, she dreamed of pioneering a community-powered model for refugee resettlement. In the years since, WelcomeNST has engaged thousands of community members from around the U.S. to form Neighborhood Support Teams (NSTs) to welcome refugee families to the U.S.​

Today, WelcomeNST enables everyday Americans to offer refuge to refugee families from Ukraine, Guatemala, Venezuela, Haiti, Syria, and around the world, proving once again that, when crisis hits, Americans will step up and meet the moment.