Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003needs and desires of the immigrant and refugee communities with whom they areworking.1. Choosing a TopicFor the purposes of today’s preparation, and when they are working with theleaders who end up taking their leadership training workshops at each site, wesuggest using the following exercise to pick a topic of concern on which to focustheir work:• Evaluate the needs of the community in which you are working. To do this,you must spend a considerable amount of time and energy surveying anddiscussing the community’s most important needs and issues. After all, it isthe community that must decide what it needs and must provide much of thework to meet those needs. For this mock event, you will of course not be ableto conduct extensive surveying, but do try to choose a topic that will berelevant to your community.• Conduct a brainstorming session on possible issues of concern to thecommunity and interest to the partner to participate in (10 minutes)• Discuss each topic in detail, focusing on the value of the project to thecommunity, the feasibility of working on the project and getting others in thecommunity to work on it, and the possibility of the project being a success.Success may mean winning the issue but may also include merely moving thecommunity to action.• Choose a topic.Possible topics include:• Trying to keep the INS from building a detention center in the community• Garnering community support around the Latino Immigrant Fairness Act(LIFA)• Supporting bilingual education• Increasing minimum wage and working towards having a living wagestandard in the community• Unaccompanied immigrant minor issues• School issues• Community safety issues• Community housing issues• Workplace health and safety issues• Encouraging people to apply for naturalization• Encouraging people to vote12-32