Northwest Regional Immigrant and Refugee Rights Training Institute
April 7-9, 2006 Portland, OR
WORKSHOP DESCRIPTIONS

Workshop Session 1
Workshop I-A: Human Rights are Migrant Rights
Immigrant and refugee communities living in the U.S. experience human rights abuses every day. The human rights framework can be a powerful tool for organizing in many ways. Participants will explore the connections between the rights of immigrants and refugees to human rights, reflect on the role of human rights in our lives, learn about human rights mechanisms relevant to immigrant and refugee communities and examine ways that communities have organized around human rights abuses.

Workshop I-B: Building Power for Immigrant and Refugee Communities through Legislative Advocacy
In recent years, Congress has debated and passed numerous bills that affect immigrants and refugees. While grassroots organizing groups work in community settings and witness the real effects of these policies on immigrant and refugee communities, Washington-DC based discussions and advocacy activities often leave out the grassroots. This workshop provides a fun and interactive introduction to the landscape of legislative advocacy, Congress, and the real nuts and bolts of passing legislation. In addition, participants will explore how community organizations can decide how to influence and interact with this process. A new BRIDGE module!

Workshop I-C: Monitoring and Documenting Human Rights Abuses: Tools for Building Immigrant Community Power
Documentation of human rights abuses against is an important way to empower the capacity of immigrant communities, to respond to abusive law enforcement practices, identify patterns of abuse in their communities and gather information in order to change public policy. Participants will discuss ways to organize community members to document human rights abuses. Participants will also discuss how the results of monitoring and documentation work in the community can be used as a way to build power for immigrant communities. This is a new BRIDGE module!

Workshop I-D: Introduction to Race, Migration, and Multiple Oppressions
In this workshop, participants will explore how different parts of our identities—including race, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, class, religion, and others—lead us to experience privilege and oppression in different ways. Participants examine negative stereotypes and their relationship to unjust policies and structures that create oppression.

Workshop Session 2:

Workshop 2-A: Building Immigrant Women’s Leadership
Women play a central role in organizing efforts for immigrant and refugee communities. Their contributions, however, often go unrecognized, and our own organizations can replicate sexism, racism, and other forms of oppression. This workshop will offer tools to create a process where groups can discuss ways to better support the work of immigrant women in our movement.

Workshop 2-B: Immigrant Rights and LGBT Rights
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered immigrants living in the U.S. face many levels of discrimination, including xenophobia, racism, homophobia, and sexism. Participants will explore the connections between immigrant rights and LGBT rights, explore how homophobic messages about gender and sexual orientation are shaped very early on, and how immigration policies affect LGBT immigrants. This workshop is aimed at audiences who do not identify as LGBT.

Workshop 2-C: Building Common Ground Between Communities—The Changing Demographics of Race and Migration
Immigration is one component of a demographic shift taking place in the U.S. Demographic change in many communities can result in conflict between new immigrants and more established groups. Many immigrants share common interests and issues with other groups, and alliances can help to solve common issues. This workshop will place these demographic changes within a larger context and participants will identify and examine areas of tension within communities, and discuss possible solutions.

Workshop 2-D: Popular Education and Curriculum Development 101 “What is popular education, anyway?” In this interactive workshop, participants will examine the background of popular education as a tool for liberation, consciousness-raising, and organizing. In addition, participants share different resources available to organizers and popular educators.

Workshop Session 3:
Workshop 3-A: Globalization, Migration, and Workers Rights
Corporations hail globalization for the increased glow of technology, communication, and trade. But globalization has devastated workers and the poor, and immigration policies designed to stop migration have resulted in increased abuse and discrimination against migrants. Participants will discuss globalization’s impact on migration, identify policies and institutions that affect corporate globalization, and examine how globalization affects our communities and how communities are responding. Participants will also view Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy.

Workshop 3-B: Power Tools for Sharing Power--Interpretation and Translation in Organizing Immigrant Communities
Translation and Interpretation are powerful language tools that can be used to achieve different political goals. They can be used to marginalize the power and voice of immigrant communities to maintain privilege and oppression; or they can be used to create spaces for new community voices in ways that transform race relationships and empower marginalized groups. Participants will explore different approaches to translation and interpretation; best practices for using interpretation and translation in immigrant community organizing and leadership development; and discuss the political importance of this work. Open to speakers of all languages.

Workshop 3-C: Media Spokesperson Training—SPIN Project
With effective media strategies, communities can pressure targets and build on your base of support. The SPIN Project provides assistance to grassroots groups to build their capacity to engage – and become leaders in – the media debate from the grassroots level. This workshop will help you develop your media spokesperson skills, help frame issues for effective media campaigns, particularly for immigrant and refugee communities.

Workshop 3-D: Strategizing Action on Legislative Ballot Initiatives
In this strategy session, participants will discuss how anti-immigrant forces are using state ballot initiatives, like the AZ Proposition 200, to target immigrant communities at the state and local level. This session will give participants a chance to discuss what is happening in different states throughout the Northwest, and how immigrant communities can strategize to defeat these initiatives.