Immigrants Lead Boston (ILB)

Boston

Mayor

Michelle Wu

Start of Project

08/01/2020

End of Project

To be confirmed

Website

https://www.boston.gov/departments/immigrant-advancement/immigrants-lead-boston

Overview

Immigrants Lead Boston (ILB) collaborates with the City of Boston’s emerging immigrant leaders to encourage shared, equitable civic ownership. We aim to achieve this mission through a multi-session course. This course fosters knowledge, skills, relationships, and practices in the art of politics among diverse community leaders and advocates. Participants will build on their capacities to share useful resources, knowledge, and connections with the City government and with their communities, to critically engage in policies and programs addressing their needs, and to promote the issues most important for them and their communities.

Expected Impact

1. Increase participants' knowledge about what different city government departments do, and what services and resources they provide.

2. Provide participants with the leadership tools to strategically engage with the city government and to advocate for themselves and their communities. Leadership tools include:

   Civic Norms: How to participate in local politics

   Problem Identification & Solving: Strategies for problem solving in the community

   Power Analysis: Networking with people in positions of power for community advancement

   Relationship & Coalition Building: Connecting with people, understanding their interests, and developing diverse coalitions for a common cause

   Public Speaking & Storytelling: Sharing stories to inform the actions of politicians, city officials, and other city residents

   Community Organizing: Mobilizing their communities to advocate with city government

3. Nurture civic leaders that can constructively discuss and act in response to sensitive political, economic, cultural, and social issues

4. Build relationships

5. Recruit and engage of participants equitably

   Evaluation

6. The program coordinator asked participants for feedback throughout the program and conducted pre- and post-course evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the program.

7. These evaluations measure the alignment of the program outcomes with the program missions, goals, and objectives.

Priority Objectives

Eliminating all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse

Providing access to urban infrastructure, social services, and education,

regardless of status

Supporting reception and advancing community sponsorship initiatives