InIt students explore immigration during February Program Day
On February 2, 2019 the InIt community came together for their monthly Program Day to learn about Immigration and the myriad of experiences associated with the US immigration system. We were lucky enough to do this learning with three different Boston-based, youth-led organizations whose work is moving the city toward immigrant justice.
Following a haiku-writing activity led by the Rivers School delegation, we transitioned into using the practice of “resonance” with immigrant student leaders from the Boston Latin Academy chapter of the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM) which included our very own InIt delegate – Shandira Soto! We listened and offered points of resonance to the many stories of immigration that were brought into the space by both the SIM leaders and InIt delegates.
We transitioned into a workshop on the Roots of Migration led by the Youth Ubuntu Project (YUP) where we each re-told our own families’ stories of migration to one another and placed them on a timeline which outlined the historical trends of migration to the U.S. We came to understand how we all are implicated in this concept of immigration and that almost all of us have roots from someplace outside of the United States.
We were then led through what the immigrant population looks like in Boston by Suffolk Law faculty Ragini Shah and Bill Berman. Professor Shah also presented a Know Your Rights workshop with the community where we learned about what rights you have when approached by an ICE agent.
After lunch, the group reconvened with the Asian American Resource Workshop’s (AARW) DOT-I program to learn about the struggles and history of resilience and resistance of Southeast Asiana American immigrants and refugees who fled to the US as a result of US-back war waged in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. This workshop was also co-facilitated by Joan Duotrong – another current InIt delegate.
In addition to creatively engaging with the several different youth-led workshops and activities led by Cristo Rey High School and Rivers School delegates, the InIt community was also led through a mini-workshop on facilitation where folks were able to become more familiar with the art and practice of facilitation as a leadership skill. We left feeling tired, inspired, curious and full.
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About InIt
As the first YWCA in the nation, YW Boston has been at the forefront of advancing equity for over 150 years. Our youth programs work with young people across Greater Boston to help them learn about key social justice concepts and gain skills that support their growth into socially responsible leaders. Click to learn more about InIt.