where migration is seen as courageous, and is met with the supportive community, safety, and healing necessary to rebuild home.
well-being and belonging are not defined by citizenship status, native language, or racial categorization.
We create systems that connect people to the resources they need, and mobilize institutions to eliminate barriers to access. Centering transformative relationships, we work at the intersection of social mobility, health equity, and language justice.
We use community-led design to disrupt threats to the health and safety of refugee and migrant communities.
Individuals and communities have fundamental rights to language, culture, self expression, and equal participation. We challenge the English dominance and Euro-centric definitions of knowledge and leadership by investing time and resources in leadership development of Members, so that they can represent their community’s own priorities. And we alter institutions to provide space for full democratic participation.
It’s all about relationships. We believe in the enduring power of mutual aid, and build on the social and emotional support that exists within and across neighbors. We create and sustain transformative relationships, where both parties take care of one another. In addition to being wonderfully reciprocal, these relationships are grounded in a critical awareness of structures and legacies of power and oppression, so that we may experience radical companionship and solidarity – across lines of difference – in the here and now.
Societally, English improficiency is, historically and presently, a tool used for the political and economic exclusion and exploitation of migrant and refugee communities. English dominant environments undermine self-agency, increase isolation, and prevent public information from reaching non-English-primary speaking communities. We work to level the playing field by opening the door to public knowledge and idea exchange, establishing language autonomy, and building a body of data to evaluate practices within institutions.
We are a volunteer-driven organization that believes in the transformative power of relationship-based community organizing, and deliberate reciprocity.