Western States Center has just completed the final session of the Western Institute for Organizing and Leadership Development for Immigrants and Refugees (WILDIR) Program. The Program's impact was vividly captured in participants' testimonials during the graduation ceremony. Two of the 15 first generation immigrant leaders spoke about their first encounter and their more recent ones—and just how much had changed over the course of their work this past year.

"When I was riding the train from Seattle to Portland for our first training session, I sat across from Toan Nguyen," said Mohamed Roble, a Somali refugee. "Although we live in the same city and we both work with refugees, I didn’t know Toan. He works with the Vietnamese community and I work with Africans."

The two met through WILDIR and began networking with one another in Seattle. They found that, despite cultural and linguistic differences, their communities were facing similar struggles. "When we were waiting at the station for our second training session, we were talking so much that we missed the train!"

In March, 2007 the WILDIR Program graduated a cadre of immigrant and refugee leaders and organizers who now share a broad progressive analysis and have the skills to strengthen, lead and staff organizations in the Western States region.

Bridging the Gaps

The WILDIR program began with a nine-month assessment of immigrant and refugee led grassroots organizations, during which Center staff talked to small groups run by volunteers as well as large social service organizations. The research surfaced major capacity issues for immigrant and refugee organizations, particularly within groups serving newly arrived populations. Few were tackling policy issues and many were having difficulty working across cultural lines.

Drawing from a range of organizing traditions and from WILDIR participants' own culturally specific practices, the program presented a variety of strategies and tactics for building a base, building organization and building power. Over the course of one year, the Center held four convenings of the 2006-2007 WILDIR class. Fifteen immigrant and refugee leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Russia spent three days learning new skills and exploring a shared analysis of regional challenges and opportunities facing their communities, which served as a basis for their collaborative work. During their WILDIR tenure, participants also completed a local project to apply and refine their skills with the support of the Center's staff.

A WILDIR Approach

The WILDIR Program contained four key components: leadership development, skill, building, cross-cultural analysis and political education.

• Leadership Development: Support individual leaders from various immigrant and refugee communities to build a shared analysis and mutually supportive relationships.
• Skill Building: Strengthen the capacity and skills of immigrant and refugee leaders in the region by helping to build necessary skills needed to effectively work in the non-profit sector.
• Cross-Cultural Analysis: Develop a shared political analysis between regional immigrant and refugee led groups, and model this process for other groups in the region and nationally.
• Political Education: Foster a deeper understanding of political engagement strategies to ensure that immigrant and refugee communities are heard within the political process and can address structural barriers to their participation.

Western States Center has long supported a multi-faceted, multi-racial approach to building capacity within and support for immigrant and refugee communities in the context of its overall programs. The WILDIR Program was a natural outgrowth of our historical work within these communities as well as a contemporary necessity as anti-immigrant public sentiment looms large. The WILDIR Program promises to seed the progressive ground with new immigrant and refugee leaders who will be poised to change the political landscape for years to come.

DOWNLOAD A FULL REPORT ON THE PROJECT Crossing Borders, Crossing Barriers A Report from the Western Institute for Organizing and Leadership Development for Immigrants and Refugees DOWNLOAD REPORT