Southeast Immigrant Rights Network Inc

Results: Check out our 2023 annual report! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ml356pAZKxvkp-mjxmpu-k-ml7rgMKmq/view

Target demographics: directly impacted immigrants and refugees in the Southeast

Direct beneficiaries per year: 25 grassroots leaders who were trained through the Hummingbird Institute, 25 participants from 16 groups who broke down barriers and wove strong bonds through Weaving Solidarity, 19 groups who received a total of almost $60K through the Cultivating Resistance Fund, over 150 conference participants and 48 grassroots immigrant- and refugee-led member organizations

Geographic areas served: the US Southeast

Programs: Our HUMMINGBIRD INSTITUTE, through popular education, equips emerging grassroots leaders with the skills and understanding they need to organize and empower their communities, practice collective and democratic leadership, develop other leaders, and drive forward a collective vision of justice centered on the dignity of all people. In 2023, we trained 24 grassroots leaders in skills including: popular education, leadership styles, healing justice, transformational solidarity, communications for organizing, conflict transformation, and self- and co-regulation skills. WEAVING SOLIDARITY is a cohort program dedicated to getting real about what divides us, and addressing the areas of separation to build transformative solidarity and power together. The cohort gathers to build relationships, study real-life examples of groups organizing in transformative solidarity, dive more deeply into present attacks on various communities, and understand and chart a path out of the harmful divide-and-conquer paradigm. Our 2023-24 cohort was an intergenerational group of 25 leaders from 16 groups, representing immigrant communities from the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East; 84% were women and 16% were LGBTQ+. Our CULTIVATING RESISTANCE FUND puts funds directly into the hands of grassroots groups across the Southeast, to strengthen and amplify their community organizing efforts; and/or build solidarity with other immigrant, refugee, and BIPOC communities. In 2023 we awarded nearly $60K to 19 groups. 64% of funds ($38K) went to frontline groups without 501(c) status, and 72% ($43K) to groups with budgets smaller than $50K. Our CONFERENCE is where SEIRN began, and remains our single best opportunity to bring together the many threads of our work and the diverse groups and communities within our network. In 2023, responding to the needs voiced by our network, the conference was themed around reconnection, healing, and embracing el buenvivir, or good living. The program, varied as always, forefronted opportunities like therapy sessions, folkloric/cultural music workshops, canoeing, and a soccer match. We also convene bimonthly REGIONAL MEMBER CALLS for peer-to-peer connection and exchange, offer practical trainings for member groups, and make in-person site visits to member groups to build relationships and to more deeply understand and support their on-the-ground work. We realize our commitment to intersectional movement-building through a deep commitment to LANGUAGE JUSTICE: SEIRN paid $52K in 2023 to have trained language interpreters supporting every one of our gatherings and meetings, enabling the coming-together of a powerful multi-lingual movement. We host occasional regional POLICY MEETINGS to inform our network and to celebrate wins as our communities fight policies that advance white supremacy and patriarchy and attack reproductive rights, voting rights, queer and trans people, immigrants, and more.