Welcoming Austin Campaign

The Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition is a grassroots, action-oriented coalition of immigrants, students and allies, as well as labor, faith and community organizations. Our efforts embody the promotion of human rights and racial, gender and economic justice. AIRC works to recognize human dignity and achieve fairness for all immigrants.

AIRC recognizes that further victories can only realistically be achieved if there is a significant change in public dialogue and opinion about immigrants in Texas. To that end, AIRC has worked in 2009 to engage the non-immigrant community in Austin through various public presentations at schools, churches, rotary clubs and local businesses. In 2010, AIRC plans on implementing an innovative communications campaign to educate and recruit allies on a mass scale.

Here are the goals for the coming year:
• February 2010: Hire a part-time coordinator for the Welcoming Austin Campaign to focus specifically on launching a communications campaign.
• March-May 2010: Conduct 4 focus groups in the broader community to determine attitudes on immigration and best messaging for our campaign.
• June-August 2010: Contract a media consultant to work on developing a communications campaign—from messaging to design to acquiring ad space.
• August 2010: Secure billboard space, bus ads and create posters to reach a mass audience.
• September 2010: Publicly launch the Welcoming Austin Campaign with the reveal of our new advertising campaign. Invite 100 people and media to attend. Recruit 15 more volunteers to the Welcoming Campaign.
• December 18, 2010: Mobilize welcoming committee and strategic allies to hold a vigil against hate crime against immigrants in honor of International Migrants Day. Use messaging focusing on community values and the need to make Austin a welcoming city, while bringing attention to the issue of hate crimes.