Fall 2005

Giving Stories
Advancing Immigrant and Refugee Issues through Philanthropy:
Four Example Projects

Intermedia Arts:  Immigrant Status Project

An initial four-year LEAP grant from the Wallace Foundation, followed by support from the St. Paul Travelers Arts and Diversity Committee and the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation, has grown from a program initiative to a strategic imperative for Intermedia Arts. The Immigrant Status project examines current conditions and policies affecting the lives of Minnesota's immigrant populations through the lens of the arts.

Using exhibitions, performances, school programs and community workshops, the series highlights the stories of African, Latino and Russian immigrants, among others. The year-three project, "Immigrant Status: Faith in Women," celebrates immigrant women and the faith that sustained them in their journeys to this country. Honoring the Beijing Women's Conference, the program examines matriarchal societies, the passing down of culture through matriarchal lineage and the various interpretations of "faith" between men and women and across cultures.

Leadership Empowerment and Development Group (LEAD)

As new immigrant and refugee groups settle in Minnesota, leaders of community-specific nonprofits emerge from these populations, yet they themselves are only recently arrived and struggling with acculturation. The Leadership Empowerment and Development Group (LEAD) has been providing nonprofit management education and mentoring to the elders and leaders of various African communities. This task is particularly difficult given that many African communities do not have nonprofits as part of their cultures, though the leaders are highly educated in other areas.

With the help of programmatic and operating grants from Otto Bremer Foundation, Bush Foundation, The Saint Paul Foundation and the Women's Foundation of Minnesota, LEAD works with African nonprofit organizations to help them apply their own African community skills to managing new organizations. African culture provides the values, perceptions and context for learning. Leaders also study mainstream requirements such as grantwriting. Because foundations are struggling with applying evaluation criteria to emerging organizations and nonprofit managers, LEAD also serves as a bridge to help funders, mainstream organizations and agencies understand the barriers and difficulties immigrant and refugee leaders encounter in running their organizations.

New Americans Center at New Minneapolis Central Library

For over 100 years, the Minneapolis Public Library has been a primary source of cultural orientation, connection and learning for new immigrants. With construction of the new Minneapolis Central Library, the opportunity arose to expand on this tradition by creating a new point of entry for immigrants, the New Americans Center. To prepare for the opening of the center, the library welcomed a grant from the Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation for a needs assessment to program the new center.

The grant allowed the library to contract with an expert in the field of new immigrant program development to create and implement, in conjunction with library staff, a series of focus groups of new immigrants and new immigrant service providers. The information collected helps create programs, purchase materials and develop services and classes that meet the needs of immigrant communities. The center will offer English-language study materials, listening stations and tutors; topical programs on issues such as public education opportunities, public health issues and services, immigration and citizenship, housing and job hunting; and library collections in the native languages of immigrant communities.

	The Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network Minnesota Family Project truck parked outside the Minnesota State Capitol building in St. Paul. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network

The Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network employs grassroots organizing, leadership development, advocacy, civic participation and community education to help "fix the broken immigration system in this country." The network uses arts to accomplish its educational programs. In summer 2005, the Minnesota Family Project addressed the lack of understanding among many Minnesotans about changes in their communities resulting from recent immigration patterns. The project addressed head-on this issue and its root cause, systemic racism, which the project leaders note the majority culture often doesn't see or understand.

A photo exhibit documenting contemporary immigrant life was installed on the outside of a 36-foot truck. The truck made a 33-stop tour to county fairs, town squares and public events across Minnesota. At each stop, viewers were asked to create their own family histories highlighting their family's reasons for immigrating. The inside of the truck became a mobile gallery of photos and short stories of immigration. One result: When these participants reflected on their own histories, they were more willing to make a connection between their own families and more recent immigrants. GF

More Links from the Fall 2005 Edition of Giving Forum

• Philanthropy and Immigration: Changing Practices to Address a Changing Population

• Life Backgrounds and Work in Immigration and Refugee Issues Bring Perspectives

• Resources on Immigrant and Refugee Programs and Concerns

• Disaster Giving Lessons Learned

© Copyright 2005 Minnesota Council on Foundations
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