Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

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Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003training and immigrant civic participation. Although there are some organizations that provideleadership training, generally the training is focused on middle class or professional immigrants,and often on native-born activists. There is not much training for other immigrants. The logicalorganizations to provide such training are the same organizations that helped the immigrantsobtain their green cards and citizenship status. The immigrants know and trust theseorganizations and are more willing to work with these organizations instead of other institutions.Yet the problem is that few of these immigration organizations work on leadership training orcivic participation issues because they lack the expertise, the resources or the interest. Thus theseimmigration organizations are missing a wonderful opportunity to help immigrants make changeand become lay advocates. ILRC could provide these organizations with the expertise and thedrive to get into this new field.§ 1.5 Anticipated Outcomes of an Immigrant Leadership ProgramThe anticipated outcomes of an immigrant leadership program could vary depending on whattype of program you are developing, but they should include at least some, if not all, of thefollowing:• A network of immigrants and refugees will have the skills to be effective advocates,civic participants and community builders at every level of engagement—local,regional and national.• The network of immigrants and refugees will become active participants in U.S. civicsociety.• Immigration and other services that are available for immigrants and refugees will bebetter tailored to meet their needs.• Advocacy by and on behalf of immigrants and refugees will be strengthened, withlocal immigrant and refugee networks working independently and with national andother local partners and networks to effect change.§ 1.6 Philosophy of the Training CurriculumThe curriculum in this manual employs interactive teaching techniques with the goal of helping agroup of dedicated community leaders develop and refine their leadership and advocacy skillsand use such skills in their communities to work on civic issues and work with CBOs.The teaching techniques used throughout this curriculum are highly interactive. The idea behindthis is that “experience is the best teacher.” Thus, the curriculum is designed so that leaders havean opportunity to practice the skills they are learning. This way leaders will be more likely to beable to overcome any reluctance to use the newly developed skills, will gain confidence in usingthem and will get immediate feedback on what they have done well and where they can stillimprove. The curriculum is designed to focus on learning and developing helpful skills. Manyleaders may already have these skills, but may need to refine them or learn to use them indifferent contexts. Some of the teaching methodologies used in this training include small group1-5
Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003practice, group discussion, individual and group presentations, teamwork, role playing,demonstrations, brainstorming, group evaluations and lectures.You will notice that the training contains some non-traditional features. It does not resemble theusual lecture format. This different format grows out of our experience that the most effectiveway to teach both content and skills is through a variety of educational approaches.Experiential Training“Experience is the best teacher.” This concept is ignored in many training designs. Yet when wereflect on the best learning experiences that we have had—whether learning to ride a bicycle orlearning to be a good advocate for our clients or fellow community members—we recognize thatthe more experiential and participatory the teaching, the more we learned.Experiential training calls for every leader to practice the skills in the training through smallgroup practice sessions that provide an immediate evaluation. In order for the small groups towork effectively and efficiently, each group typically should include four to eight leaders andone trainer. This design requires more trainers than would be needed for larger groups, but itinsures that all leaders will have ample opportunity to practice.Each leader must participate in the exercises. Facilitators must draw out the more reticent leadersfor they are often the ones who benefit the most from the practice.Skills Over SubstanceThe substance of the training topic—many of the areas of immigration law, housing law, politicsor whatever the centerpiece of the training is—is bound to change. However, the skills developedin the training provide the base on which the advocates will continue to serve their communitieseven as circumstances and community concerns change. The training teaches and gets leaders topractice public speaking, outreach to the community, leading small group discussion anddeveloping presentations. These skills are transferable to other situations and do not change.§ 1.7 Using This ManualThis training curriculum is complete and ready to be used. You will find here almost all thematerials that you will need for the entire training. This manual includes a combination of actualtraining units and other text designed to help the trainer succeed in promoting immigrantleadership training and civic participation initiatives. Additionally, it will be extremely useful tomake copies of parts of the manual for the leaders you are training to read.Although we suggest that you use the entire manual in your leadership training, the manual isdesigned so you can pick and choose the chapters that would be most helpful and appropriate foryour training and the community with which are working. The trainer does not have to followthese chapters word for word. In fact we encourage trainers to adapt the curriculum to their ownsituations. The primary goal of this manual is to assist agencies to develop a network of trained1-6
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