Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003Chapter 1Introduction to the Inspiring Leadership Initiative:Leadership Development in Immigrant Communities§ 1.1 What is the LIRS Inspiring Leadership Initiative?The leadership development model explored in this initiative has at its core the relationshipbetween community-based organizations that provide services to immigrants and the immigrantcommunities they serve. We believe this is an effective collaboration because the uniting ofestablished, experienced organizations with the energy, ideas, skills and concerns of immigrantsand refugees can strengthen both. It is only one of several immigrant-oriented leadershipdevelopment models. Other initiatives include those that focus more prominently on therelationship between faith-based institutions and the immigrant community, or on communitymembers building their own organizations to mobilize around supporting particular policies orpolitical movements.Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) initiated the “Inspiring Leadership Initiative”in 2000. This initiative began to effect social change by engaging three key sectors of the LIRScommunity—immigrant communities, local service providers, and the LIRS AmbassadorsCircle, a national network of volunteer advocates—in projects of service and advocacy. Thetraining and support that LIRS and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC) have beenproviding to immigrant communities is designed to help the immigrant communities speak ontheir own behalf and navigate U.S. institutions such as local governments, law enforcement,schools, social service systems, the media and employers. Two factors have been vital to thesuccess of this training and support phase of the initiative. First, the inclusion of communityleaders in planning and implementing program design ensured community buy-in andinvolvement. Second, assisting immigrants to acquire the skills necessary to join the native-bornas full partners has created a new, interactive model of local and national partnerships.The importance of developing leadership skills among immigrant and refugee communities ismore important now than ever. Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, there has been a widelyreported increase in the hostilities, violence and discrimination against immigrant and refugeecommunities. Community leaders, with the proper skills and tools, can help the communityunderstand its rights, develop strategies for educating the public about who immigrants andrefugees are and the benefits they bring to our society, and work to ensure that any newimmigration legislation includes adequate provision of services.The Inspiring Leadership Initiative worked with five sites—Denver; Omaha; Austin, Texas;Trenton, N.J.; and Phoenix—and was highly successful. Highlights include:• Over 65 leaders were recruited from the five sites, far surpassing the goal of 25.• Each of the three sites that were not already offering immigration legal services to thecommunity developed such plans, invested in training and hiring staff to deliverservices, and entered into the time-consuming process of receiving accreditation from1-1
Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant CommunitiesJanuary 2003the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).• Service providers enhanced and improved their community outreach, reallocating andreconfiguring staff time to increase the emphasis on community relationships.• All sites successfully reached out to new ethnic populations and developed newservices.• Immigrant communities, led by the participants in the Inspiring Leadership Initiative,eagerly engaged in the project, implementing new community-based programs,forging coalitions and, in one instance, creating a mutual aid association.• The LIRS ambassadors embraced their mentoring role, using their new connectionswith the community to learn new perspectives and to move into new and excitingareas of advocacy.• Seventeen leaders asked to become LIRS ambassadors, formally representing LIRS inthe broader U.S. society.The goals of the Inspiring Leadership Initiative were met by these means:• Building links among LIRS ambassadors, immigrants and service providers.• Developing a new ambassador role as mentor and key team member at each pilot site.• Engaging ambassadors to serve as mentors to community leaders and developing peerpartnerships between community leaders and ambassadors working together onbehalf of LIRS and their communities.• Training community leaders to become ambassadors and facilitating access to theapplication process.• Building skills through national and local training through a national conference andon-site visits.• Ongoing coaching and mentoring through teleconferences, site visits, one-on-onetelephone consultations, a listserv and a newsletter.• Linking immigrant communities with traditional U.S. power structures andinstitutions and with other immigrant communitiesThe success of the Inspiring Leadership Initiative is what prompted LIRS and ILRC to write thismanual. LIRS and ILRC wanted to share with others what we learned during the training part ofthe Inspiring Leadership Initiative. For more information on LIRS’s Inspiring LeadershipInitiative, please see Chapter 2 of this manual.§ 1.2 Who are Immigrant and Refugee Leaders?Immigrant and refugee leaders can come from any walk of life. They can be politicians,professionals, union activists, clergy members, business owners, school teachers, neighbors,apartment dwellers, elderly, youth, restaurant workers, farm workers, people working in thetrades and so on. For the purpose of this manual and this initiative, when we refer to leaders weare generally referring to grassroots leaders, not politicians, professionals and successfulbusiness owners who are already established in their fields.1-2
Page 1 and 2: InspiringLeadership inImmigrantComm
Page 4 and 5: Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant C
Page 6: Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant C
Page 58 and 59:
Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant C
Page 60:
Page 63 and 64:
Page 65 and 66:
Page 67 and 68:
Page 69 and 70:
Page 71 and 72:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80:
§ 8.9 ConclusionInspiring Leadersh
Page 83 and 84:
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 104 and 105:
Page 106 and 107:
Page 108 and 109:
Page 110 and 111:
Page 112 and 113:
Page 114 and 115:
B. Critique of the brainstorm sessi
Page 116 and 117:
Page 118 and 119:
Page 120 and 121:
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Some possible answers to share with
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
Page 152 and 153:
Page 154:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 166 and 167:
Page 168 and 169:
Page 170 and 171:
Page 172 and 173:
Page 174 and 175:
Page 176:
Page 179 and 180:
Page 182:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 190 and 191:
Page 192 and 193:
Page 194 and 195:
Page 196 and 197:
Page 198 and 199:
Page 200:
ilrc700 Light Street,Baltimore MD 2
show all

Inspiring Leadership in Immigrant Communities - ILRC

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?