If you are a funder practitioner currently or considering funding in rural communities and are interested in the intersection of rural issues with migrant justice and belonging, we invite you to join GCIR’s Resourcing Rural Belonging Community of Practice.
According to FWD.US., between 2000 and 2020, departures from rural counties outweighed new arrivals by 700,000 people. Yet many communities that have seen a rebound have been the primary destination points for immigrants and refugees. This has come with its own set of challenges, including language access needs, workplace abuse, heightened criminalization, and lack of legal access. We explored many of these themes through our rural webinar series, which included the following programs:
According to FWD.US., between 2000 and 2020, departures from rural counties outweighed new arrivals by 700,000 people. Yet many communities that have seen a rebound have been the primary destination points for immigrants and refugees. This has come with its own set of challenges, including language access needs, workplace abuse, heightened criminalization, and lack of legal access. We explored many of these themes through our rural webinar series, which included the following programs:
- Building Immigrant & Worker Power in Rural America (October 2022)
- Promoting the Health & Well-Being of Immigrant Workers in Rural Communities (December 2022)
- Strategies for Resisting Immigration Detention in Rural America (January 2023)
While we address these challenges, we can be certain that rural demographics will continue to shift in the coming decades. How do we prepare for that future? What will it take to advance immigrant and refugee belonging and justice in rural communities? We hope to answer these questions as GCIR pilots this new working group. Our collective goals are to:
- better understand the current landscape of immigrant power-building and belonging across rural America.
- exchange information about ongoing and emerging funding opportunities to resource organizations serving immigrant and refugee populations in rural areas.
- collectively strategize and design programmatic efforts to mobilize philanthropy and amplify rural immigrant and refugee power building and belonging.
To learn more about this community of practice, contact Cairo Mendes, Senior Director of State and Local Programs.
Photo by Andree_Nery on iStock, is licensed under standard license.