Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees - GCIR

BRIDGE is a tool for all organizers, community groups, educators, activists, advocates, and leaders—anyone committed to supporting the rights of immigrants, refugees, and the communities where we all live. This workbook contains tools for immigrant communities to build alliances and find common ground for action with others fighting for economic, social, and racial justice, and to envision alternatives and resistance in these times of global exclusion, racism, and human rights abuses. BRIDGE strives to place the current work of the immigrant and refugee rights movement in larger historic and global contexts, and to promote the human rights of all migrants and refugees.

In 2003, the Fund for New Citizens began a Capacity-Building Initiative to strengthen immigrant-led groups in New York City by enabling them to address critical management issues. By providing grantees with both grants and technical assistance, the Fund aimed to help individual grantees strengthen their programs and expand their budgets, while also increasing the groups' individual and collective capacity to advocate on behalf of their constituents. From 2003 to 2007, the Initiative's 27 grantees took on a range of projects related to fiscal management, technology, fundraising, leadership development, and governance.

The aim of this report is to gauge how the Initiative has affected grantees, individually and collectively, over the past five years. In short: What kind of results has the Capacity-Building Initiative produced? The report seeks not only to highlight the key factors that bring an organization to the next level of growth and sustainability, but also to illustrate the effect the Initiative has had on grantees' ability to advocate on behalf of their constituents.

Looks at how collective remittances and the 3x1 Program have improved the living conditions for the general population in the communities of origin, where hundreds of basic infrastructure projects have been implemented. The report is also available in Spanish.

This study by the Applied Research Center addresses the question, "How can established community-based and philanthropic organizations more effectively work with emerging mutual assistance and immigrant rights organizations to address the concerns of immigrant and refugee families?" It Eexamines models of immigrant and refugee organizations by evaluating data from interviews with over more than 120 key leaders, and explores case studies of six local organizations,; and assesses the effect of the post-September 11 political environment on immigrant and refugee communities.

This report analyzes the information needs of over 120 immigrant advocacy and service organizations around the country, as well as the methods used by these groups to obtain and impart information. The authors compile the most popular listservs and websites and identify key unmet information needs. They recommend greater collaboration among information providers, education initiatives to improve technology use, new information products to address unmet needs, and creation of greatly expanded communications and information networks.

Colorado has become a gateway for immigrants and refugees. These newcomers, who come from countries around the world, represent the widest possible range of ethnic groups, religious beliefs and education levels. They bring change to communities and, at times, pose challenges for municipal leaders. For example, multiple languages and cultural differences can make communication and interactions challenging for police, paramedics, librarians, code enforcement officers and other city departments. This report by the Colorado Trust details ways in which municipal leaders can reach out to immigrant communities in their jurisdictions.