Advocates Launch Efforts To Help Ukrainian Refugees Who Find Themselves In Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) -- From the halls of Congress to local churches, efforts are already under way to help Ukrainian refugees who wind up in Chicago.

CBS 2's Tim McNicholas took us inside a push to welcome them in the weeks and months ahead.

Lydia Tkaczuk loves to show off the Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago, 2249 W. Superior St., where she served as board president. But she's getting calls about a lot more than the exhibits at the museum now.

Tkaczuk says strangers are asking how they can help Ukrainian refugees.

"They are willing to give their apartments, or Airbnbs, or they have a house an extra house – and they're willing to take in refugees," she said.

Tkaczuk started relaying the offers to the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, or UCCA – a nonprofit advocate for Ukrainian causes. Now, that group's Illinois division has asked Tkaczuk to be its refugee resettlement coordinator.

"I'm glad that I'm going to be able to help somehow, because up until this point, you sort of tell your family members you're supporting them with your thoughts and prayers, but there's nothing more we're doing," she said.

The leaders of the UCCA's Illinois division showed McNicholas the donations pouring into St. Joseph the Betrothed Ukrainian Catholic Church, at 5000 N. Cumberland Ave. near O'Hare International Airport.

"You've got socks, you have clothes," Pavlo Bandriwsky of UCCA.

Just hours before McNicholas showed up, someone dropped off hundreds of dollars' worth of shoes.

"It's just uplifting that people realize the tremendous need," said Dan Diaczun of UCCA

Volunteers are working to get the items to people still in Ukraine. But the UCCA is asking for more donations, because refugees who end up in Chicago will also need help.

"Eventually, some will settle here, because projections are refugees could run anywhere from 5 to maybe 7 or 8 million people that are going to be displaced by this Russian aggression," Bandriwsky said.

"We are going to do everything in our effort to assist these people," added Diaczun.

U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Chicago), who represents parts of the city's North and Northwest sides and western suburbs, wrote a letter this week to President Joe Biden this week – asking him to help Ukrainian refugees. He wants Biden to grant them Temporary Protective Status, to protect them from deportation and allow them to work in the U.S.

The White House has said the U.S. is prepared to accept Ukrainian refugees, but they have not said when that could begin to happen.