Immigrant Family Institute

An innovative project of the City of Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs

My work in the area of service provision has led me to pursue two community projects that highlight the importance of local government in meeting the needs of immigrants and refugees. Since 2013, I have partnered with our City of Seattle Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs to develop and deliver two community-based programs serving immigrant and refugee families in Seattle.

The Refugee Women’s Institute (RWI) is a program designed to build understanding between refugee communities in Seattle and the Seattle Police Department. This program, the first of its kind in the nation, aims to build a grassroots network of refugee women leaders while increasing the cultural competency of the female officers who participate. The RWI won the U.S. Conference of Mayors Innovation Award in 2015 and was featured as a model program in the 2015 White House Task Force on New Americans Report.

The Immigrant Family Institute (IFI) is a program developed in response to feedback received from the RWI participants. It is designed to build systems knowledge, leadership, and self-advocacy skills for immigrant families with youth ages 10-14 who have had some type of experience with the juvenile justice system or feel vulnerable to having such an experience.

To improve the experience of immigrant families who interact with the juvenile justice system, we focus on: 1) building youth and parent/guardian knowledge and advocacy skills in successfully navigating the juvenile justice, education, and city service systems, 2) relationship building between police officers and immigrant families, and 3) increasing officer knowledge and cultural responsiveness regarding immigrant families. The second year of the program concluded in May and had 72 participants.

MEDIA COVERAGE:

• King5 News: SPD Reaches Out to Immigrant Families

• Komo4 News: Immigrant families, Seattle police officers celebrate program that brought them together

• KNKX All Things Considered: How Immigrant Rights Plays into May Day

• International Examiner. SPD Program to Help Immigrant Male Youth of Color Completes its Inaugural Year

• Seattle Met: City Officials want Immigrant Family Institute to be a permanent program

• CityLab: When Police Officers Sat Down with a Community They Hardly Knew