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Join the next quarterly meeting of GCIR’s California Immigrant Integration Initiative, which facilitates funder engagement, funding coordination and alignment, and member-led initiatives, creating opportunities for funders to leverage the collective impact of their grantmaking and fortify the immigrant funding field in California. CIII is comprised of statewide, regional, and local funders from across the state.
Join the next quarterly meeting of GCIR’s California Immigrant Integration Initiative, which facilitates funder engagement, funding coordination and alignment, and member-led initiatives, creating opportunities for funders to leverage the collective impact of their grantmaking and fortify the immigration funding field in California. CIII is comprised of statewide, regional, and local funders from across the state.
Join GCIR for this peer-to-peer discussion session to learn about the challenges local leaders are encountering while addressing the needs of these newly arriving migrants. We will also explore the strategies currently being developed and refined for building strong response networks. It has become clear that – in addition to resources –communication, coordination, and adaptability are essential to a successful response. This session will provide an opportunity for participants to share their experiences and ask questions about strategies for welcoming and supporting new arrivals.
Across the country, 202,500 DACA recipients are working to protect the health and safety of Americans as the country confronts COVID-19. They are ensuring that children are still being educated; food is still being grown, packaged, cooked, shipped, and put on the shelves of grocery stores; patients are being cared for; and much more.
Blue Meridian Partners is deploying capital to organizations focused on vulnerable communities as an immediate response to the current crisis.
Immigrants have always been a vital part of the social and economic fabric of this country. They have always taken on an oversized share of the frontline work of caring for our sick, our young, and our elderly. So it may not be surprising that immigrant communities are disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Covid-19 vaccination rates increase and infections plummet, our society is reopening and a feeling of normalcy is returning for many of us. But those hit hardest by the pandemic, including immigrants and people of color, are returning to communities devastated by a disproportionately high death toll, rampant job loss, and the compounding traumas of the past four years, including hostile immigration policies, toxic rhetoric, surging hate crimes, and a massive racial reckoning. Not everyone has the privilege of returning to normal, and, even before the pandemic, “normal” was not working for everyone.
The economy, natural disasters, big breaking news, election cycles, etc. all make catching potential donors’ attention and investments more difficult. In the course of a normal year, these dynamics are commonplace and even anticipatable. We know how to reschedule campaigns, we’re getting better at planning for the boom and bust of electoral cycle funding and have learned to lean into more resilient sources of independent revenue like sustainer giving to get us through the ups and downs.
Researchers at the UC Merced Community and Labor Center find non-citizen women have experienced the deepest job losses. The study is an early signal of how the coronavirus recession is widening California’s economic inequities.
As the daughter of a Chinese-Thai father and a Filipina mother, I struggled with stereotypes of Asian American/Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), including being perceived as a “perpetual foreigner.” When I was in kindergarten, my parents offered me the choice of learning Thai or Tagalog. However, my classmates were already teasing me because of my perceived otherness, and I roundly rejected learning another language because I was “American.” I received compliments about how “well” I spoke English. And questions such as “Where are you from?” followed by “Where are you really from?” when my answer was unsatisfactory for my interrogator, started to trigger me.
Becoming a GCIR member makes it possible for us to continue providing vital services to grantmakers and guide timely and strategic philanthropic responses to address the most pressing issues facing immigrants and refugees.
Outside the U.S. Capitol, it was an unexpectedly beautiful winter day in D.C. - 60 degrees of sunshine with a breeze. Inside, we walked alongside energized groups navigating the buildings on their own missions. As part of the Foundations on the Hill delegation, Kevin Douglas, Senior Director of National Programs at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR), guided a group of six of us in and out of the long halls and winding tunnels. In my excitement at being in the People’s House for the first time, where power could lead to transformation or repression, I thought back to the years of the Trump Administration’s inhumane immigration policies.
Our 2018 convening was an opportunity to gather with local, state, and national foundations with diverse interests to discuss emerging challenges and opportunities for newcomers and receiving communities.
In this edition of Amplify, GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Mily Treviño-Sauceda, Executive Director of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas. Read on as Mily shares how the work of farmworker women intersects with fights for migrant, gender, worker, and climate justice, and how philanthropy can support the leadership of women farmworkers. A note to readers: This interview mentions sensitive topics that may be triggering, including sexual harassment and other violence against women. Please take care while reading this article.
Find all program-related materials for GCIR's webinar "Welcoming Houston: Providing Support to new Immigrants in Texas" here, including session recording and powerpoint.
Read the GCIR 2017 Annual Report to learn more about how GCIR staff, members, funders, and allies rose to 2017’s challenges.
GCIR President Marissa Tirona speaks with Lian Cheun, Executive Director of Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) in Long Beach, California, an organization working for gender, racial, and economic justice through community and power building efforts led by Southeast Asian young women.