GLN participants are graduates of previous Grassroots Leadership Institutes who get together to deepen their learning and solidarity with other leaders and organizers from grassroots groups. The goal of the GLN is to build the capacity of organizers and leaders to develop grassroots leadership in social change work and in organizations, and to promote solidarity among communities and organizations
Grassroots Leadership Institute
CSIO heard from immigrant organizers and organizations over the past decade that trainings on how to do grassroots leadership development in organizations and in organizing work are sorely lacking. In response, we developed, and in 2011-14 offered, Grassroots Leadership Institutes in Spanish and English that address key issues surrounding how to do grassroots leadership development.
The Youth Leadership Initiative is built around bringing youth together to surface the problems that immigrant students face. Youth will hear from each other about their respective challenges and discuss strategies for change.
Network of Immigrant & African American Solidarity
NIAAS aims to bridge Boston’s diverse communities of color, each of which shares a history of oppression and racism. If we are successful with our approach, we will be united across communities in sharing and overcoming challenges to achieving social justice. NIAAS uses a variety of popular education tools to promote dialogue, share stories of lived experiences, and build relationships that foster mutual understanding and education among people of color in Boston and beyond.
Immigrant Executive Director Network
In 2016, in response to a growing need among Immigrant Directors for solidarity, training and peer support, CSIO launched an Immigrant Executive Director Network. The cohort currently consists of a group of 8 Latina, African and Asian immigrant Directors from a diverse array of 8 grassroots and social justice organizations. The E.D. cohort meets regularly to get support and training, share best practices around building sustainable, grassroots-led organizations, and support each other amidst the challenging and intense work they do – and the challenges that 2017 presents.
Organizational Development
CSIO’s Approach to Organizational Development: CSIO believes that organizations that promote constituency leadership and organizing in their external work must also practice the model internally. This means that they must have structures and processes in place that promote a participatory leadership development process at board, staff and membership levels so that immigrant community members have access to the decision-making process which affects them.
CSIO strives to support the strengthening of community capacity for achieving democratically based social justice. We view organizations as a vehicle for this process. Strengthening organizations and helping to promote community leadership is a core component of our community capacity building work. We also view our training and peer learning work as core strategies in this capacity building approach.