What are the best practices for engaging with immigrant and refugee communities at outreach events?

Partnering with a local organization is an excellent way to get to know the community you're looking to work with. Attend an event organized by a local org beforehand, if possible. Lean on the local org for their knowledge. Ask about challenges and needs as well as areas of strength related to the community served. Use this as a source of knowledge to help reduce biases or assumptions that have been made about the specific community of interest.

Since language, identity and culture is what connects us, I recommend assembling outreach teams that are diverse and have the ability to connect in a manner that helps members of this group to feel safe and secure. I recommend having immediate access and/or referrals to resources such as food, shelter, clothing and if possible supplies to support proper hygiene, if possible. In support of the goal of nurturing a safe space and building trust, I highly recommend no pictures be taken especially of the individuals receiving support.

Great points. Also take the time to ensure you have a diverse audience with in these groups. Remember in all groups there will be persons with disabilities and the elderly that might need more support to be included. Engaging with a diverse audience not only expands our reach but also deepens our connections. It sparks innovation, upholds our commitment to inclusivity, and builds trust. In a world rich with diversity, our goal is to create content and strategies that resonate with everyone. Join us in this journey of discovery and connection. Together, we can ensure that our collective efforts reflect the rich tapestry of human experience. #WeAreBillionStrong

A best practice to engage with immigrant and refugee communities at outreach events is say, "hello!" Saying "hello" in any language can go a long way in terms of taking the anxiety out of speaking to someone new. Then, you can introduce yourself. If you encounter a language barrier you can aim to use Google Translate or another translation app on your phone, for example, to assist you with initiating a friendly conversation to convey your intentions and provide information about the services offered for the outreach event.

Understanding the value of diversity is a critical component of acceptance as a whole and success will not come unless we accept that the foundation of this country was put together by a diverse group of special individuals whose work has withstood the test of time until this present challenge. We will prevail because as President Ronald Reagan said “our acceptance and embrace of immigrants keep us a young vibrant nation”

There are many barriers to consider when working with immigrant and refugee populations. You'll want to make sure the event is truly accessible - perhaps hold the event as close as possible in specific neighborhoods, using locations provided by trusted partners such as their local schools or church. Transportation and childcare are both good things to offer, preferably free or extremely low cost. Having staff or volunteers who speak the language is important for clarity and comfort; translators can work if needed, but bilingual service providers is highly preferred. Trust is important, some refugees, immigrants and undocumented will feel uncomfortable if government or law enforcement is present. You must ensure the event is a safe space.

As a Community School Coordinator, I ensure all flyers and messages are sent in our major home languages(we have 4!). I either utilize students as interpreters or I secure district simultaneous interpreters to use our translation equipment. In our observation of events, parents do not feel that language is a barrier if we have this service. They also feel that we care enough to respect their language and value their participation.

One thing to consider is that this is a broad category made up of many unique subsets of culture, background, nationality and other things. For example, I worked on a project in Panama trying to reach a local Chinese population, which was about 300,000. Their particular culture in that location was heavy into small business ownership. As a result, they were primarily at their businesses 7 days a week and hard to reach. There was one radio station in Panama City that was Chinese and a high percentage of shops had that playing all the time. The plan we came up with was to focus on small business workshops, offered for free, on different small business strategies, and to advertise on that radio station.

One thing I found helpful is working at their pace. When organising events, workshops, consultations, surveys or focus groups, find out what works best for them especially the time and days as many may be studying, working or school runs which means participation could be affected

In my experience, what we say and how we say it, is important. We want to use easy to understand language, avoid using interagency lingo or acronyms. We also want to avoid using terms that are often used to describe others, instead, use language that acknowledges the person in front of you, their diversity, strengths, culture, and resiliency. We also want to have materials available in the language your clients speak. Above all, you need to ensure your staff and volunteers are well trained, treat people with respect and dignity, and from a viewpoint of an ally, a source of help and information, not from a point of power.

Ensuring your booth is staffed with the appropriate bilingual employees to ensure engagement and outreach. This will definitely help spread the word about your program ensuring success down the road.

Respect, integrity, empathy and communication to place on ease. We are all God's vessels. Support when and where required. Listen don't judge book by its cover.

Language helps in right communication and relationships building with the people. Once the better communication established one can understand the problem and needs better.

One thing I've found helpful is cultural research. It is good to develop relationships with people who are a part of the culture you are to be working with outside of the project. One project we worked required interaction with the homeless in our area, so our team spent several months just going and developing relationships with people in those camps. Through those interactions, our team began to understand the appropriate and non-appropriate phrases, topics and attitudes that helped us reach our goals.

What I have learned is it's important to actively listen to communities, to leaders, to partner agencies, and to community members first. Adapt our services to what they need, to where the community is at. And it's most important to keep in touch with communities. They should not just hear from us once or twice a year, but periodically on important updates, feedback cycles, etc. How can you support their programs, as well. Build the relationship, the trust, the engagement over time.

In my experience, relationships are key to reaching immigrant communities. You need to demonstrate that you care about the person and culture, not just see them as something to fix or respond to. Far too often, I have seen organizations and groups try to piggyback off of another organization’s relationships through proximity or they will show up and expect people to come. There is no shortcut or quick way to build a relationship. The reality is that the immigrant community has navigated many difficulties and challenges to get where they are, which has also included being exploited and taken advantage of by people, claiming to help. Relationship building allows you to demonstrate that you are there for them, not simply use them.

In my experience, building relationships is dependent on several factors. One that I know goes a long way, is to understand how to communicate; even though we can learn if someone's culture is more communal vs individualistic, we still need to get to know the context of the individual we are speaking with. Another, is understanding the socio-political situation the individual is coming from. For example, if we consider a trans individual from South America that is in Mexico or even South Texas, understanding the sociopolitical situation has a tremendous impact on our ability to connect and build relationships with others.

Understand that in order to build relationships, we need to invest time. It requires dedication, patience, and willingness to be proactive when needs are named.

Ensure you have adequate translation services to assist families who will require language support. Oftentimes I used my bilingual students to support the events with translations for individuals throughout the event. When you are resource limited, you adapt and overcome.

I agree that you need to evaluate what you were doing constantly. To assume what has worked in the past will continue to work is shortsighted. When we begin our work as an immigration legal provider, it was a bit of trial and error to find out what method would work. Evaluation allowed us to eliminate things that were costing us money with little return or assess partnerships that were not in line with who we were. It is intimidating to look at what you were doing with a critical eye and acknowledge that things aren’t working, but you will be far more sustainable and have the longevity you desire if you are willing to acknowledge that you don’t know or see everything. Continuous evaluation is a key in that process.

Evaluation is important to measure success. The evaluation process, in order to be effective, needs to include Cultural Responsive Assessment practices that empower the participants to be active collaborations on design the assessment protocols and affirms their agency and recognize expertise.

Collecting data aligns with evidence-based practices that are better suited for determining the aspects of programming efforts that are effective, helpful, impactful (as well as those that are not a best use of time and resources or that may harmful to the communities we're attempting to serve). This is incredibly important for work with immigrant and refugee communities. Every immigrant and refugee community is unique, although there are overlapping needs, experiences, challenges, and strengths. The use of evidence-based practices allows us to better serve and support the specific community of focus.

In my experience, evaluation and feedback is very important for future engagement with these community. Ensure you also come back to them with the outcome and Call to action otherwise the feel ignored and disengage. We we want to achieve is to build and maintain relationships for future work.

Identify gate keepers to serve as project ambassadors. Make sure that your methodology is culturally sensitive and appropriate

Consider providing child care services: Providing child care services can help ensure that immigrant and refugee parents can attend outreach events without having to worry about their children's care. Consider partnering with local child care providers or offering on-site child care services.

Know what the law says and get to know the immigrant community level understanding of the legal process. How that is communicated is crucial but even more those having some in that particular community whose gone through it successfully to serve as an example and incentive is critical !

As a Community Planning and a Design Thinking Practitioner, I acknowledge that all these sections are equally vital towards improving our engagement experiences. To add to those sections, and what may represent somewhat a culmination of many of these experiences... I introduce design thinking at our table of conversation here. In my experiences, encouraging the following have proven positive outcomes for my former colleagues: 1) Co-designing the design thinking process alongside the client in the project development phase. The starting line is foundational. 2) Sometimes removing myself from the conversation to allow the most space for the client to determine and judge how they want that process to evolve. Trust is key.

Enough of gate keepers filtering out most and picking stories that can lead to stats showing "success" only. Most need guidance and all would love someone to hear their stories with sensitivity. Not all need support, but all need someone to be supportive