Aliento's Accomplishments and Highlights: What Aliento has done since April!
This year, although faced with many unprecedented challenges and events, has also been one of growth and accomplishments for Aliento. We are now halfway through the year 2020, and the Aliento team has managed to hit many commemorable achievements! We thought we’d share some of those with you:
April
RELIEF FUND FOR MIXED-STATUS FAMILIES
With COVID-19 on the rise, we quickly recognized that families were in need of financial assistance. COVID-19 has disproportionately affected immigrant communities in Arizona, many of which were excluded from the CARES act in late March. Because of this, we organized a Relief Fund for Mixed-Status Families. So far, we have raised over $30,000 for over 100 families, and we have received over 100K in support which has enabled us to provide $500 to 230 families up to date!
10 YEARS SINCE SB 10-70:
April marked 10 years since SB-1070 was passed by state legislature and signed by Governor Brewer. These are policies that have deeply harmed the immigrant community in Arizona over the course of 10 years. We asked our Aliento Community about how this piece of legislation has affected them since its enactment.
HONORABLE MENTION IN 2020 FAST COMPANY WORLD CHANGING IDEAS 2020:
Aliento received an honorable mention in Fast Company World Changing Ideas 2020. The World Changing Ideas awards honors organizations that take on innovative solutions to make the world a better place. They have over 25 categories, and Aliento received an honorable mention within the Social Justice category -- a category that recognizes projects that solve problems pertaining to marginalized communities.
EDUCATED AF > COVID -19 STUDENT E-VIBE CHECK:
With the closing of schools due to the pandemic, we here at Aliento recognized that students needed a virtual space to meet each other and talk about their experience amidst uncertain times. Therefore, our student Fellows organized a virtual event to hold space where students from all over AZ were able to be in community! We had over 60 students from 15 different schools join in and share their experiences since the pandemic hit.
May
CONCLUSION OF ARTS AND HEALING WORKSHOPS:
May marked the ending of our Arts and Healing workshops. These workshops are aimed at creating a space for community, creativity, and reflection. We explored various themes including repurposing, reframing, self-love, self-worth, and many more!
VIRTUAL ARTS AND HEALING GALLERY FOR OUR ECFI STUDENTS:
This year, Aliento partnered with the Eisenhower Center for Innovation where we selected 16 young fellows to participate in monthly workshops. We worked in partnership with students, teachers, and staff where we co-created social emotional learning practices to enhance school culture of social-emotional development. We featured their work in a virtual gallery, which you can see here. We are super proud of our youngest fellows, and can’t wait to see what they accomplish in the future! Above is the work of one of our students, Abril Tellez
9 IN 10 VOTERS IN ARIZONA SUPPORT GIVING DREAMERS A PATHWAY TO CITIZENSHIP:
We released a poll, completed by OH Predictive Insights, that shows that 87% of Arizona voters support giving Dreamers a pathway to citizenship, while only 9% oppose, and with 4% having no opinion. To view more insights, check out our blog!
CATALYST 2030
Reyna Montoya, Aliento’s Founder and CEO, recently led a session for Catalyst 2030 – a collective aimed at achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.In Reyna’s session, called Co-creating Healing & Agency, she talks about the importance of centering and listening to impacted communities, particularly the immigrant community, when making important decisions amidst a global pandemic. To learn more about what Aliento is doing to center disproportionately affected communities in our work and to watch full session, watch below:
GRAD E-COMMENCEMENT TO CELEBRATE THE CLASS OF 2020:
We partnered with Telemundo Arizona and the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University to celebrate the class of 2020 virtually! Although the class of 2020 did not have an in-person graduation ceremony, we thought they were still deserving of recognition and celebration. Let us celebrate the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of the Class of 2020 amidst a lot of uncertainty!
ALIENTO’S NOT AFRAID CAMPAIGN NAMED BEST BRONZE TELLY WINNER IN SOCIAL VIDEO/ SOCIAL IMPACT:
Aliento, in partnership with MATIZ creative, was named the Best Bronze Telly Winner in Social/ Vide Social Impact in the 41st Annual Telly Awards. The Not Afraid Campaign is a series of videos that highlights the stories of undocumented youth, dreamers, and mixed status families from Aliento.
June
8 YEARS OF DACA:
June 15th marked 8 years since the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was enacted. The program undocumented folks a chance to work, go to school, and shields them from deportation. This very program is still being threatened by the Trump administration, even after the Supreme Court blocked Trump’s first attempt at terminating the program. We have to push for inclusive, long-term legislation immediately. To sign our petition to urge the U.S. Senate to support a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, click here. If your DACA expires within the year, we encourage you to renew as soon as possible. We have virtual appointments available here. We also have a comprehensive DACA toolkit in both English and Spanish.
SCOTUS UPHOLDS DACA:
On June 18, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that Trump violated protocol when ending DACA and therefore must vacate DACA in place. With uncertainty leading up to the decision, we here at Aliento recognized the added stress and anxiety that some of our members experienced. To read more about what some of our team members experienced in the months leading up to the decision, click here. Because of this, we decided to hold virtual community spaces and group therapy sessions for undocumented, DACAmented, and mixed-status families. Read more on this decision.
ANGEL FEATURED ON NY TIMES:
One of our Aliento Fellows, Angel Palazuelos, was featured in the New York Times. Here is what he had to say:
“Despite how hard it may be to believe, you are not your hardships, you are not your expectations, and you are certainly not your undocumented status. What you are is a treasure of potential: It has never been about the circumstances that you are born in, but the opportunities you make for yourself.”
Congratulations Angel, thank you for all of your work!
NEW INTERNS:
This summer, we are excited to welcome 9 interns from all over the nation to the Aliento team. We have interns from California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, and Arizona! To read more about why our interns are excited to work with Aliento this summer, click here.
July
REYNA MONTOYA, OUR FOUNDER + CEO, SELECTED AS 2020 FLINN-BROWN FELLOW BY ARIZONA CENTER FOR CIVIL LEADERSHIP:
Reyna Montoya was selected as one of the 31 Flinn-Brown Fellows this year. The Flinn-Brown Fellowship is a competitive program that offers seminars about Arizona policy and politics and long-term support for civic-leadership development. Congratulations Reyna! Read more.
ARIZONA HUMANITIES GRANT RECIPIENT:
Aliento received a grant from Arizona Humanities to continue delivering our arts-based emotional support for students and families. Arizona Humanities has awarded $520k in emergency-relief grants to nonprofit organizations and cultural institutions across Arizona!
FEDERAL COURT ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO BEGIN ACCEPTING NEW DACA AND ADVANCE PAROLE APPLICATIONS:
On July 17th, a federal court ordered the Trump administration to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to its original status, meaning that the Trump administration must accept first-time DACA applicants and begin accepting applications for Advance Parole.
For more information visit our DACA Toolkit page in both English and Spanish.
Additional Highlights:
36 ARTICLE FEATURES
Throughout the past few months, Aliento has been featured in The Wallstreet Journal, AP News, NY Times, Telemundo AZ, The Americano News, and more! To see a full list of articles, click here.
This year has certainly been one full of growth and achievements for the Aliento team. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us. We are able to do all we do thanks to every single one of our supporters. We can’t wait to see what comes next for the Aliento team! Make sure to follow our social media pages to stay up-to-date on Aliento’s events, breaking news, and important information!
If you would like to support our work here at Aliento, please consider donating! The work of our team and fellows is made possible highly in part to the contributions made to our organization by people like you.