MAKING CONNECTIONS: BRIDGING GAPS TO CHANGE LIVES

Making Connections: Bridging Gaps to Change Lives

Alesha Perrin
Western Washington University
AHE 590
Dr. Sondra Cuban
May 31, 2016

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Background
The organization I chose to focus my efforts on this quarter is the Skagit Immigrant
Rights Council (SIRC), a very small organization serving primarily Latino/a immigrants
throughout Skagit County. This organization is predominantly focused on immigrant rights, and
has made special efforts to offer assistance to those immigrants who are currently undocumented.
Immigration policy is at the forefront of todays hot-button issues, and the United States
is a nation currently divided on the best course of action regarding the future of immigration in
our country. One specific topic of debate is related to the handling of the large influx of
immigrants who are coming into the country without proceeding through the established legal
processes, and result in their undocumented entry into the United States. The landscape and
national attitude are becoming increasingly more hostile toward these individuals, who often
come to America in search of a better life for themselves and their families and work hard to
forge the life that allows for the opportunities they desire. Prominent political figureheads are
cultivating hatred and fear toward immigrant populations, with policy proposals and rhetoric
focusing on deportation, wall-building, and restricting entry for specific groups of immigrants.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump and his platform on immigration is a particularly
good example of the hate-fueled, fear-mongering narrative that has made its way into our
political system. His proposals for immigration reform include ...three core principles: that the
U.S. must build a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, that immigration laws must be fully
enforced and that any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all
Americans (Diamond & Murray, 2015). Additionally, Trumps solution would include
suspending the issuance of green cards, tripling the number of immigration and customs agents,
and even the implementation of a tracking system for those who overstay their Visas (Diamond
& Murray, 2015). For those immigrants who have entered the country without documentation,
these policies are more than simply policies. The decisions made around this issue can be lifealtering, with the implications of these policies - including forced deportation or incarceration cultivating fear severe enough that immigrants no longer participate in community activities,
drive, etc. for fear that they will be found out. Additionally, forced deportation also increasingly
results in the separation of families in which children of undocumented immigrants are born in
the United States (Hagan, Rodriguez, & Castro, 2011).
Immigration policy reform in the United States often tends to unduly impact immigrants
from Mexico and Central and South America due to the countries close proximity to the
U.S./Mexico border, and consequently the increasing numbers of immigrants from these
countries entering the United States. According to Johnson (1996), Though the term illegal alien
is seemingly race neutral, it is relatively easy to discern which noncitizens are the ones that
provoke concern. Study of the use of the terminology in context reveals thatthe term refers to
undocumented Mexicans and plays into stereotypes of Mexicans as criminals (p. 282). This
issue is of particular note in Skagit County because it contains a large population of Latino/a
immigrants, both documented and undocumented. Some of these individuals come to work as
migrant farmworkers within the many diverse agricultural operations that populate the Skagit
Valley, who then desire to make Washington their permanent home. According to the Skagit

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Valley Herald, Latinos account for 17% of the population, and from 2000 to 2010, the county
saw a growth of 71% in the Hispanic/Latino population (Cole, n.d.).
To serve this population, the SIRC has a board consisting of 9 individuals who come
from mostly Skagit County, but has at least one member from Whatcom County, to participate.
They are fundamentally driven by their two co-founders who continue to guide the direction of
the organization with the assistance and participation of the rest of the board. The organizations
main focus in the recent past has been working with this population to assist eligible candidates
with the process of applying for Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA), but they are
also general advocates for immigrant rights in other arenas.
To further define the scope of DACA, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services
website states:
On June 15, 2012, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced that certain people
who came to the United States as children and met several guidelines may request
consideration of deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal. They are
also eligible for work authorization. Deferred action is a use of prosecutorial discretion to
defer removal action against an individual for a certain period of time. Deferred action
does not provide lawful status (Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA), n.d.).
In the realm of DACA, the organization has assisted in facilitating several Legal Clinics,
which are collaborations between the SIRC, Catholic Community Services Family Immigration
Services (CCS FIS), Community to Community (C2C), the American Immigration Lawyers
Association (AILA), and their larger regional counterpart, the Northwest Immigrant Rights
Project (NWIRP). These legal clinics aim to assist undocumented immigrants who meet the
criteria of DACA in completing their application. The SIRC has had to be very careful in how
they present these clinics, as any inaccurate representation of their qualifications and skills could
potentially lead to legal action. Participants are provided before, after, and throughout the
workshops with a disclaimer that the volunteers aiding them are not able to provide legal
counsel, and are only there to assist them with their application. They do, however, have lawyers
on hand at these events to protect the volunteers and the participants in the event that legal
counsel is needed.
Currently, the organization is coming up against a new set of challenges, as DACA
applications are no longer being accepted. I attended a board meeting in early May, and it was
evident that the organization is in a real state of transition as they try to figure out what their next
move is. The fate of their most recent efforts and related future endeavors largely hang in the
balance of the next presidential election, as whoever takes office will undoubtedly influence the
policies around both undocumented immigrants and immigration in general, and courses of
action available to those individuals who wish to immigrate to or remain residents of the United
States. The organization has a clear commitment to remaining connected with the community it
serves, despite the fact that they are unsure of which major effort they should undertake next.

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Population Selection & Rationale

I chose to focus on this particular population (the Latino/a community as a whole, and
more specifically undocumented individuals) for several reasons. The first is because of these
individuals prevalent membership in our community around Skagit and Whatcom County, and
additionally in my hometown. I grew up in Central Washington in a community with similar
demographics, including a high number of Latino/a people who came to work in the various
orchards (apples, cherries, etc.). I went to school with a number of Latino/a kids, and had very
limited interactions with them and little to no understanding of the complex political climate that
surrounded them. I was often confused by their choice to socialize almost exclusively amongst
themselves, and why they were always speaking Spanish. As I proceeded through my high
school career with a full class schedule of AP courses, Latino/a students were almost totally
unrepresented (with a few exceptions) in my classes. To be honest, I did not think much about
the absence of diversity, and simply accepted that this was the way things were without
stopping to question why this was the case.
During my undergraduate career I decided to minor in Diversity in Higher Education as a
stepping stone to an eventual career working in higher education. When I began this minor I was
more concerned about the Higher Education piece of it than the Diversity piece of it,
figuring that it would look good on a resume and eventual application to a graduate program. The
classes in my minor were really my first exposure to any discussions of policy or the experiences
of marginalized populations, and needless to say, my eyes opened wide to the myriad of issues
and the complex political climate that is predominant in the United States today. It was in these
classes that I first truly learned about marginalization, racism, and the educational inequities that
are still deeply entrenched in our society. I began to look critically at my own experiences, and
the experiences of others, and in doing so started to make sense of both the community I grew up
in and the community I now call home. I was introduced to the experiences of my fellow
students who had grown up differently than I had, and for the first time I heard firsthand about
the frustrations, sadness, and struggles they had experienced both in their educational journeys,
and in their lives as a whole.
One of the most powerful learning experiences I had was when I took a course aptly titled
Diversity in Higher Education. Our instructor had us write I Am From poems and share them
with our classmates as a way to get to know one another on a deeper level. Up until that point I
had never heard the word undocumented, let alone understood its connotation and the burden
associated with it. Growing up in my largely conservative hometown, words like illegal were
often thrown around to refer to the Mexicans working in businesses like agriculture,
landscaping, etc. Consistent with Johnsons (1996) assertions, these terms were meant to target
Latino/a individuals in order to diminish and otherize them, casting an aura of superiority
around the person using this word choice as if the only defining characteristic of these
individuals was their perceived immigration status and inferred country of origin. Listening to
one classmates poem and her experience of being undocumented fundamentally changed my
understanding around the experiences of undocumented immigrants in this country. I realized
how painful and harmful the narrative of illegal immigrants is to real actual people who call
this country home and work hard to keep it that way. This experience is a big part of what incited

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me to become interested in social justice issues, particularly as they relate to education, and
specifically to learning more about and working with the Latino/a community.
The political climate which surrounds all immigrants in this country, but particularly
Latino/a immigrants due to their ever-increasing representation in population demographics, has
clear implications as it relates to education. I realize now that the underrepresentation/total
absence of Latino/a students in my honors and AP level coursework in high school was a
manifestation of the epidemic of educational inequity that continues to plague and permeate not
only the formal educational institutions in this country, but also the nonformal and informal
institutions as well. This inequity only compounds as students transition into higher education
institutions where their citizenship status may be called into question for purposes of admission,
financial aid, etc. My classmate who shared the I Am From poem highlighted how the very act
of trying to go to college while being undocumented was nearly impossible. She further detailed
how, even after getting in and figuring out how to navigate financial aid, she remained on edge
due to the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on campus, fearing that
even one minor slip up could result in her deportation. Despite the strides that have been made in
the recent past to support undocumented students, there is still much to be done to make
significant policy changes both at the level of higher education, and in changing the narrative at a
national and local policy level.
As I have moved into my graduate coursework, I have continued to grapple with my own
privilege as I learn about the landscape of adult education on a global scale and where I fit into
the framework. The struggles faced by Latino/a immigrants in this country are unfortunately not
unique to the United States, or even to them as a population. This fact has only been affirmed by
the discussions we have had in this class, as many of the organizations that my classmates have
reached out to are attempting to serve other communities that also face issues of educational
inequity amongst a host of other, and at times far more dangerous, issues. We are in a unique
position as informed, politically aware graduate students to utilize our privilege to serve others,
and I do believe that we have an obligation to do so.
My work with the SIRC this quarter grounded many of the concepts we addressed
throughout the themes in practice, and the literature presented unique and complimentary
material to support my efforts in working with the board.

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Relevant Literature and Relation to Globalization, Marginalization, and Global Education

Though the SIRC is not an organization that inherently focuses solely on concepts around
adult education, there is interplay between these concepts and the work they are doing. Each of
the themes this quarter presented a unique examination of global adult education, and I spotted
glimpses related to my project in each of them. An examination of the effects of globalization in
Theme 3: Adult Education Systems Across the World was a good place to start in understanding
the global climate and its impact on the population and organization I studied this quarter.
Without the process of globalization, and the phenomenon resulting in mass migration and the
bringing of a large immigrant population to our area, the work being done by the SIRC
potentially would not be happening. Drawing from Development of Educators in Relation to
Globalization in Latin America, by Goerne (2008) which was included in Merriam et al.,
globalization is increasingly resulting in the loss of human capital, as people are emigrating
northward in search of work and sustenance (p. 31). As people immigrate into the United
States, they are faced with a host of barriers, many of which we have discussed this quarter
throughout each theme, but in some more than others. The SIRC is in the business of helping to
mitigate these barriers through their efforts.
Of all the themes, the one that related most closely to my project was Theme 4:
Transnational Migration and Learning of Marginalized Groups. The readings from this theme
and subsequent discussion around barriers and supports for immigrant students in adult education
substantively supported the learning I have done this quarter with the SIRC, and tied closely in
with my own research on the subject. These supports and barriers were not only representative of
individuals experience in adult education, but also in their lives as a whole. Laura aptly
highlighted some of the aforementioned barriers in the discussion for Theme 4, bringing in the
reading by Guo (2010) to support her assertions. She quotes Guo as stating, ...learning
comprises four dimensions: learning to know, learning to do, learning to be and learning to live
together. For immigrants, the move to a new country means that they need assistance (p.
159). This learning is particularly relevant in the context of the work done by the SIRC, as their
function as a community resource ultimately aids immigrants in each of these processes. More
specifically, their work with DACA is a great representation of how the SIRC assists the
immigrant population. By raising awareness about DACA eligibility and application (learning
to know), assisting people with the application process (learning to do), supporting applicants
before, during and after their application process (learning to be), they ultimately give
immigrants the chance to make a life here in the United States (learning to live together).
Another barrier that immigrants face both in education and virtually all other facets of
their lives is the monolingual standard that is so favored and utilized in the United States.
Individuals who come to this country speaking little to no English are immediately at a
disadvantage because linguistic diversity is largely discouraged, excluded, and even at times
outright forbidden, in many of our institutions, be they educational, governmental (road signs,
legal documents, etc.), or otherwise. It is no wonder that immigrants whose first language is not
English are automatically disadvantaged, as the burden is on these individuals to not only master
the language, but then to simultaneously apply the language to survive, let alone be successful.
These individuals are arguably the poster children for informal adult education, because although
their learning may not take place in a classroom, their lived experience is a necessary education

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in and of itself. There is little forgiveness and understanding for immigrants who are forced to
shoulder this burden. Rivera and Huerta-Macias (2008) further highlight the implications of this
monolingual standard, as they discuss how people entering into worker training programs are
expected to have at least a ninth grade literacy in order to understand the curriculum (p. 99).
Offering a support to counter this barrier, the SIRC provides most (if not all) of their
resources translated into Spanish on their website. Additionally, they utilize Spanish-speaking
volunteers (and several members of the board, if not all, speak Spanish as well) at their legal
clinics to increase comprehension and access to their resources. Though on somewhat of a lesser
scale, this is reminiscent of the bilingual approach to workforce education for Latinos discussed
by Huerta-Macias & Quintero (2008). The authors outline a program in which the design is
integrated to include both the native language and English, where the native language is used to
teach job-specific skills and English is used to teach job-related language skills (p. 102). This
allows learners of English to fully understand and obtain the necessary skills needed to be
successful in an occupation, while simultaneously developing the language skills to support the
rest of their job functions and ultimately make them successful participants in the host society.
Relating this back to my project more specifically, assisting the SIRC in broadening their
communication capabilities in turn allows the organization to reach farther and wider to reach the
individuals who can utilize the bilingual services they offer. Ultimately this allows the
organization to continue their efforts to mitigate the impacts of the language barrier, which keeps
immigrants from applying for things like DACA.
Much of the material in Adult Biliteracy: Sociocultural and Programmatic Responses
proved to be very insightful and supportive of what I was learning throughout the quarter with
my project. Powrie (2008), in discussion of the models of civics education in the United States,
states:
On the one hand, top down programs have emphasized the need to help immigrants
become Americans (acculturate into the existing social order); on the other, there have
been bottom up efforts to help immigrants see how they can challenge the status quo
and work together for social justice in an effort to create a better life for themselves, their
families, and their communities (p. 155).
From my experience working with the SIRC this quarter, I think the organization does a good job
of really straddling the middle line between these two approaches. They meet immigrants where
they are at in order to help them obtain the necessary status through DACA that allows them to
remain in this country (in a sense acculturate into the existing social order), but they do so in a
way that continues to promote social justice and immigrant rights.

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Methodology for Action Research

According to Reason & Bradbury (2008), Action researchis not so much a
methodology as an orientation to inquiry that seeks to create participative communities of
inquiry in which qualities of engagement, curiosity and question posing are brought to bear on
significant practical issues (p. 1). Additionally, Glassman et al. (2012) classify action research
as:
a form of social inquiry through which members of social groups interact with one another,
engage in open dialogue about their intergroup relationships, and collectively participate in a
learning process to create social change within their communities. To that aim, AR
constitutes a series of principles and procedures, describing how events should be sequenced
to instigate progress in human organization/community. Research serves as a lubricant for
social action, keeping it from getting mired in accepted power dynamics and habitual thought
about how things "should be" (p. 274).
My project speaks to both of these definitions in varying parts. Per the quote from Reason &
Bradbury, my efforts to improve the communication functionality to include text messaging
capability is attempting to improve a significant practical issue. My efforts with the SIRC this
quarter necessarily hinged largely on the interaction and communication with jim justice (Note:
jim purposefully does not capitalize her name, it is a conscious decision and was, for me,
reminiscent of bell hooks!).
After being connected with jim through my classmate, I began corresponding with her via
email about the organization, potential areas of need, and how I could potentially be of service to
them. While emailing worked well to discuss general information, it became clear that it would
be of great benefit for me to meet both jim and the rest of the SIRC board in person to continue
having a discussion about needs and priorities, along with the allowing the whole group to
getting to know me and my skillset. After getting to know one another, it would allow us to
determine a project that would both benefit the organization and also fulfill the requirements of
the project assigned. Per the point of Glassman et al. (2012), I feel that my coming together with
the board really helped to shake up the how things should be, and allowed the organization to
get out of their routine to think about new and unapproached projects that could potentially be
done.
I attended the organizations May board meeting, which was held in Mount Vernon at the
CCS FIS office, a small, window-less space with three separate office spaces. It was a valuable
opportunity to see how the organization operates, particularly since they meet only once a month
and the board meeting is a crucial opportunity to have all members in the same room for
important discussions. We all sat in a circle, and the majority of the meeting was spent going
over the changes the organization is making to their website, but I was given the opportunity to
introduce myself, talk about my skillset and ideas that I had for working with and providing a
service to the organization, and collaboratively we determined the organizational needs and
ultimately the direction in which my project was to proceed. This process included the open
dialogue, and collective participation in a learning process to create social change by both
myself and the board which was mentioned by Glassman et al. (2012). Additionally, the board

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meeting was a space and time in which engagement, curiosity and question posing all were
present, furthering the agenda of action research. My attendance at the board meeting was
essentially an invitation to participate in the work being done and a chance to offer a contribution
to the larger effort, which I think really is the essence of action research. While slightly
overwhelming on both sides, I think that both the board and I walked out of the meeting with
new direction and vigor that was refreshing and motivating for the project ahead.
In seeking to create a product/service for the organization (per the assignment), I became
involved with the organizations efforts to create social change, and board buy-in was a crucial
part of ensuring that this was truly meaningful action research. The SIRCs efforts are a very
clear effort to make a difference and affect social change in the immigrant community, and more
specifically the Latino/a community. Though I did not work directly with members of the
affected population, my work to support the administrative staff by researching and identifying
the means to provide text message capability will, with any luck, benefit those in the affected
population who receive assistance from the SIRC.
Ideally, I would have loved to have more time to carefully and thoroughly develop a
project that grew out of more time spent with the organization. It is without a doubt a wonderful
organization who is doing very important work within their target community, but, unfortunately,
we all know that the quarter system necessitates a tight turnaround. It was somewhat difficult in
an eight week timeframe to find, connect, and really, truly get to know and be a part of the
organization, especially since it is such a small and tight-knit group. While I appreciated their
welcoming attitude and willingness to work with first my classmate, and then with me, I think
that we both would have been more comfortable if I had first attended a few board meetings
(they only occur once a month, so that wasnt very feasible with my timeline) and then launched
into a more long-term project, that could have potentially spanned a few quarters.

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Advocating for the SIRC & Immigrant Population

I came into working with the SIRC in a rather indirect way, as they were originally
planning to work with a classmate who subsequently dropped the class. As such, my first
impressions and information about the organization was passed through her, and I wasnt initially
entirely sure what direction to proceed in with my project. After closer examination of the
materials I was given, and corresponding with the organization, I decided that the best use of my
skills would be in supporting the functions of the organization itself instead of working with
community members directly. My project largely focuses on the back-end administrative
operations of the SIRC, but was ultimately driven by their needs and desires related to the work I
could reasonably accomplish this quarter, as ten weeks is a difficult amount of time to establish
rapport and trust with the vulnerable population the organization serves. Even with these ideas in
mind, this project ended up being narrower in scope due to the complexity of the issues that
surround my chosen population.
My initial plan of attack with this project was to help overhaul the communication
management resources the organization is currently using in order to increase outreach efforts
and allow the SIRC to connect more readily with the population it serves. There was an interest
from the board to begin utilizing text-messaging capability to supplement the email outreach
efforts the organization is already conducting. The impetus behind this effort comes from the fact
that there are a number of individuals in the community they are serving who do not have a
computer, and would be reached more readily if they received text messages instead. In terms of
advocacy, this would serve to increase the access that the community has to the SIRC, their
resources, and their partner organizations like the NWIRP. Additionally, this would allow the
organization to communicate more in real-time when they are hosting events, allowing them to
quickly communicate changes and updates right to their clients cell phones.
However, I significantly underestimated the scope of this project. When I met with the
board and offered them my proposal in order to elicit suggestions, garner feedback, and gather
input, a larger discussion was sparked. What I had thought would be a simple matter of
consolidating mailing lists, phone numbers, etc. was made significantly more complicated by the
vulnerability of the population served by the SIRC. The organization is currently using
MailChimp (a contact management system) to manage email lists for outreach before and after
the DACA workshops that the organization has been offering, and for general outreach/support
of the population they serve. What I didnt realize is that as a non-profit organization with little
to no legal presence (a few of the volunteers/board members are lawyers, but most are not), the
SIRC is vulnerable to legal action which would compromise the contact information of
potentially undocumented immigrants. The surrendering of this information could potentially
lead to legal action against the affected individuals, and the SIRC would not have any way to
protect either themselves or said individuals.
Currently, the organization is attempting to mitigate vulnerable place they have found
themselves in, which is a good idea for the organization, but difficult to reconcile within the
scope of my original project idea. There is discussion of moving these contact lists to the secure
server offered by CCS FIS, as one of the SIRC board members is an attorney working with CCS
FIS. If moved to this secure place, the contact information would be protected under attorneyclient privilege. However, the vulnerability of this information ultimately meant that I was not

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able to gain access to it as I had originally hoped, which drove my project in the direction of
researching the resources available to help eventually broaden the reach and scope of
communication with the population they are serving.
Though both the organization and I originally thought that the MailChimp system they
are currently using would offer the capability to also do outreach/communication via text
message, further research showed that another system would have to integrate with MailChimp
to have this functionality. It seems that this may have been a previously existing feature that has
recently been scrapped in favor of integrating with other services. The board and I agreed that a
reasonable and useful application of my time and effort this quarter would be to research the
services that would integrate with MailChimp to provide this functionality so that the board
would ultimately be able to make an informed decision about whether incorporating this service
would be reasonable, and if deemed reasonable, which service would be the best choice for the
organization to implement. I spent time this quarter researching the applicable plug-ins
specifically recommended by MailChimp.
What I discovered is that the SIRC would be best served by a plug-in called Textiful.
Though there are several services of this kind available that would integrate with MailChimp,
this one seemed like the best and most well-rounded option. This service allows for text
messaging to work in both ways with MailChimp, allowing the SIRC to text blast to the
subscribed users, but in turn also allows users to subscribe to the mailing list from their mobile
phones by texting a code of the organizations choosing to a specified number. Doing so opts the
individual in to receive future communications from the SIRC via text message or by the method
of their choosing.
This service offers a free 14-day trial, allowing the organization to test-drive it, so to
speak, before committing to purchasing this service. There are tiered costs for this service, so the
cost will depend on the amount of messaging the organization intends to use. The cost for using
the middle-of-the-road tier of service is fairly minimal, coming in at around $50 per month, but I
am not entirely sure if the organization would be willing/able to spend this amount of money to
purchase it. As this organization is a non-profit, and funding tends to be pretty tight, I am
currently in the process of researching potential grants that would give the SIRC the necessary
funding to purchase such a service. It is an arduous process of wading through a number of
grants to determine whether they would be eligible for the funding, the necessary application
process, and the like. I have been going back and forth via email with jim justice, my contact at
SIRC, flooding her with questions related to their eligibility and function. I am hoping that I will
be able to identify a grant before the end of the quarter that I can present to jim and the board
that would facilitate purchase of this service.

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Questions and Issues

From my point of view, this project was interesting because I feel like the actual
product/service I created for the SIRC was less important than the depth and breadth of learning I
did around immigration, documented and undocumented immigrants, and the supports and
barriers they encounter. Prior to my work with the SIRC I had never heard of DACA, so gaining
knowledge around this and other forms of immigration legislation was very insightful. I had
heard of legislation like the DREAM Act, which was provoking prominent conversations during
my time as an undergrad, but I was unaware of the other legislative efforts that were underway
for helping undocumented immigrants. Through learning about DACA, I also learned more
about the general political climate around immigration and more specifically around
undocumented immigrants.
While I had some general idea of what it means to be undocumented as a student from
my learning experiences throughout my minor and some in graduate school, learning more about
DACA and the SIRCs efforts gave me a better understanding of the larger picture for
undocumented immigrants. One question that this heightened awareness raises for me is: what
drives people in this country to pass judgement on and condemn undocumented people who
work so hard and genuinely desire to be American? Laura shared an article with me that was
written by an undocumented journalist who is originally from the Philippines, and I was so
struck by something he stated in this article. He says, This is my home. Yet even though I think
of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesnt think of me as
one of its own (Vargas, 2011). Many undocumented immigrants are born here, or come to this
country very young as their families search for a better life as Vargass did. I would argue that
they are no less American than I am in character and in spirit, and yet they are denied the rights I
am granted because we as a country have decided that the means by which they entered this
country makes them somehow less American. While I understand that immigration policy is
likely more complicated than I fully understand, and that there is a balance to be had with
regulation, over the course of the quarter I have found myself more impassioned than ever in my
opinions about immigration reform.
Another issue that arose for my while doing this project was the roadblocks we ran into
with confidentiality around the contact information for the participants and potential participants
related to DACA. This is such a vulnerable population to help, and the hoops that the
organizations who support them have to jump through in order to maintain this confidentiality
are very much a hindrance to the actual work there is to be done. When questions of immigration
status are on the table, these organizations are subject to the scrutiny of federal government
agencies, which can pose a pretty major hurdle to jump before number one, finding and reaching
these individuals and number two, actually being able to assist them. I am curious how other
organizations who deal with similar vulnerable populations handle this confidential information,
and think that finding organizations similar to the SIRC and having somewhat of a best
practices conversation could be really beneficial for the organization to see what their peers are
doing. The size of the SIRC makes this issue more difficult than I imagine it would be for a

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Perrin 13

larger immigrant rights organization, simply because organizations of that size and scope would
likely have a legal department or something similar to manage all sensitive information.
Additionally, I wonder if there is a better solution available that would manage all of the
organizations needs in one system and allow it to be stored in an encrypted, confidential way.
While a change of this magnitude isnt realistic at this juncture (per my conversations with the
board), it may behoove them to re-visit this in the future to ensure that they have the most robust
and comprehensive communication system to connect with members of the population they are
serving. Without having done any in-depth research, I would imagine that there is likely an ideal
solution that would include text-message capability in-built within the system that would not
require any additional plug-in.
A concern I have with the outcome of this project is two-fold: firstly, I worry that if a
suitable technology grant is not identified, this solution will not be able to be implemented, and
secondly, I worry that if implemented the board will be ill-equipped to utilize the service.
Because the board is so small, they typically do most to all of the work themselves as it relates to
the daily operations and functioning of the organization. jim is currently managing the
MailChimp system, and she has mentioned that she does not feel very technologically literate.
Adding a new piece to the puzzle might prove to be somewhat overwhelming for her, and I
worry that, even if purchased, it wouldnt get used. One viable solution to this problem would be
to hire someone, or recruit a volunteer who felt comfortable and able to use the system. In the
board meeting the discussion was briefly broached about the prospect of hiring on some staff to
help support the organization and the efforts of the board members. I think that this would be an
ideal way to bring in a tech-savvy person to spearhead this effort to hopefully get it up and
running and then to sustain it. While volunteers are wonderful additions to organizations like this
and can be greatly useful, I think that the SIRC could benefit from having some longevity in a
staff member to really see initiatives through.
One final question I have that was generated through this project is related to the
identification and protection of undocumented immigrants. As it stands now, the SIRC depends
on people self-identifying and seeking out their services in order to connect with members of the
affected community. As has already been identified, this population is very vulnerable, but I
wonder if there is a better and more efficient way to connect with the undocumented population.
As previously mentioned, these individuals are often afraid to seek out help due to the very real
and looming fear of deportation, and as such I would imagine that the SIRC is not currently
reaching a large number of individuals that they could potentially offer services to. Would the
fundamental climate and policies need to change in order to more readily serve this population?
Or is there a way, currently, for these individuals to get the help they so deserve?

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Perrin 14

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