Adelante Mujeres' Leadership and Advocacy Program for Communities of Color https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/proposals-2019/adelante-mujeres-leadership-and-advocacy-program-for-communities-of-color https://grants.dudleytdoughertyfoundation.org/@@site-logo/sitelogo-75x75.png

Adelante Mujeres' Leadership and Advocacy Program for Communities of Color

Additional Information
Used for	With support from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation, Adelante Mujeres’ Leadership and Advocacy Program will provide educational training and mentorship to empower 50 individuals from communities of color in Washington County, OR to become compassionate and engaged civic leaders. Funds from the Foundation will support staff time to implement training of our Civic Leaders and Promotores (Immigrant Rights Peer Supporters) curricula and to coordinate quarterly collaboration sessions to work on implementing community advocacy work. Ultimately, more than 4,000 total community members will be engaged or assisted in civic leadership, policy advocacy, or immigrant rights activities.
Benefits	Adelante Mujeres’ Leadership and Advocacy Program provides educational training and mentorship for communities of color in Washington County, OR to become compassionate and empowered civic leaders. The overall goal of our program is to increase representation among communities of color in local and statewide decision-making processes to ensure that the needs of all of our community members are being met.
Proposal Description	Adelante Mujeres’ Leadership and Advocacy Program began in 2017 as a partnership with Washington County to provide Civic Leadership training to communities of color to encourage their active participation in decision-making processes in our community. Since then, our program has grown, based on grassroots participant direction, to include training for peer-based Immigrant Rights advocacy. This need among our community has grown out of the current national and political climate. The uncertainty of federal legislation around immigration, specifically the fate of DACA and the dangers of family deportation, has a profound effect on our participants, many of whom hold this status. In a New York Times editorial in August of 2016, Nicolas Kristof mentioned incidents that had occurred at one of our youth development sites, Forest Grove High School, citing the increased bullying that was occurring around the presidential election and the subsequent walk-out protest by Latinx students and their allies that captured national attention. While our communities have made generations of contributions to our local and national society, our history is that of persistent discrimination and inequities. The Latinx community plays a critical role in our region’s economic, social, and cultural life. Tragically, the current climate has further isolated already-marginalized immigrants and has significantly increased the financial and toxic stress they experience. This environment threatens to have long-term negative impacts on immigrant families. But, in this time of great fear, our community, now more than ever, seeks to be engaged in the processes that are impacting their lives and they are looking to Adelante to help guide them. We believe that by developing compassionate and courageous leaders, immigrants can help to guide advocacy efforts impacting communities of color and low-income communities, build a network of peer-to-peer support, and empower family and community resilience. Our program provides direct services to low-income, underrepresented communities of color throughout Washington County, Oregon. Particularly, we focus on the Latinx population who embody a multicultural, racial, and gender or non-conforming community from Latin America (North, the Caribbean, Central, and South America). Over 2/3 of children and youth in the 5-17 age range are bilingual in Washington County, demonstrating the power of young Latinxs, currently and in the future. The young Latinx demographic is a growing voting population. In 2017, 2 out of 3 Latinxs in Washington County were citizens. Building civic leadership is paramount more than ever as people of color and those underserved need to share and guide the future of communities. Funds from the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation would help to support the training and education of communities of color in Washington County through the following activities: Immigrant Promotores Training: Deliver a 12-hour curriculum (six, two-hour sessions) to train new and beginning leaders from communities of color (bilingual) to become Promotores. Promotores are first-line mentors and advocates to the Washington County immigrant community and to participants of Adelante Mujeres. After graduation from this course, Promotores continue to receive monthly training, one-on-one coaching, and networking to stay updated on policy changes and action opportunities. Graduates are community advocates who provide a minimum of eight hours of community service through facilitating Know Your Rights workshops, providing resources and mentorship to immigrant families, and participating and/or coordinating advocacy opportunities, such as providing public testimony to decision-making bodies. Washington County (WaCo) Civic Leaders Training: Train and educate new and beginning leaders from communities of color to better equip them to engage in county government decision making and actively participate in the civic life of the county. Participants are provided access to and resources about county government roles and services through field trips to County Commissioners’ meetings, specialized presentations from local government officials, and one-on-one mentoring with Adelante Mujeres’ leadership staff. Since beginning the program in 2017, 23 Latinx participants have completed our Promotores Training and 40 individuals from communities of color have graduated from our Civic Leaders Training. Many of our graduates are now serving on decision-making bodies or are holding elected offices, such as Community Partnership Organizations, local school board, Cultural Coalition and Human Rights Council of Washington County, and many others. Additionally, last year alone, more than 2,800 Latinx individuals in our community were reached by our educational and advocacy activities. A continued partnership with the Dudley T. Dougherty Foundation will help us to build upon this successful foundation and reach more members of our community with leadership development and support to immigrant families who are struggling in the current socioeconomic climate.