Refugee Community Partnership

We use community-led design to disrupt threats to the health and safety of refugee and migrant communities, creating systems that connect people to the resources they need and mobilize institutions to eliminate barriers to access. Centering transformative relationships, we work at the intersection of social mobility, health equity, and language justice. Societally, English improficiency is, historically and presently, a tool used for the political and economic exclusion and exploitation of migrant and refugee communities. English dominant environments undermine self-agency, increase isolation, and prevent public information from reaching non-English-primary speaking communities. We work to level the playing field by opening the door to public knowledge and idea exchange, establishing language autonomy, and building a body of data to evaluate practices within institutions. It's all about relationships. We believe in the enduring power of mutual aid, and build on the social and emotional support that exists within and across neighbors. We create and sustain transformative relationships, where both parties take care of one another. In addition to being wonderfully reciprocal, these relationships are grounded in a critical awareness of structures and legacies of power and oppression, so that we may experience radical companionship and solidarity - across lines of difference - in the here and now.