Mass Community Education: In this public health emergency, TIRRC plays a critical role in ensuring that immigrant and refugee communities have access to timely and accurate information about recommendations and regulations, the availability of government and community resources, and critical health services, and changes to the immigration system.
Our team is collecting and creating a robust set of community education materials and developing targeted and remote information distribution strategies to reach diverse immigrant and refugee communities to be used alongside our mass communications strategies like social media and Spanish-language media. You can find many of the resources we’ve already created and distributed on our social media channels and on this page of our website. Read about our efforts in the Tennessean.
Monitoring Impacts of Coronavirus and Access to Relief: To effectively advocate for more equitable relief programs and care, it is critical that we understand how immigrant communities are being impacted by policy changes and accessing care. Many immigrant families may also feel uncomfortable or unprepared to navigate local, state, and federal resources, but TIRRC can serve as a trusted point of contact to access information and services.
We are using our rapid response hotline to serve as a central point of intake and referral for individuals with questions or issues related to the Coronavirus, including accessing health care, addressing legal concerns, accessing economic relief, social services, and other public benefits, etc.
Through these intakes and our frequent collaboration with partner organizations across the state, we will be able to track trends, identify gaps in resources and services, and sharpen our policy and legal advocacy to meet the most pressing needs of the community.
Connecting Communities with Resources: Through our community education and COVID-19 hotline, we are developing a robust resource referral guide to ensure sure our members and communities have access to resources and assistance. We are also tracking the development of mutual aid networks across the state to make sure that immigrant community members are included to receive and contribute support. We are also developing the operational infrastructure to be able to collect and deliver direct financial assistance to immigrant families, and most specifically domestic workers, economically impacted by the pandemic.
Advocacy: As the local, state, and federal governments design comprehensive responses to this pandemic, it’s critical that we forcefully advocate for full access to care, relief, and protections for immigrant and refugee communities and to join a broader movement to reshape our country's health and social safety net systems.
We have crafted and are mobilizing support for a platform of immigrant inclusion that you can read here. We are also partnering with labor unions and community organizations across the state to advocate for robust economic relief for working people, including immigrants.
We will also be shifting some of our legal work to assist immigrants and refugees in non-immigration related matters as needed, including around tenant and landlord issues.
MAKE A GIFT TO SUPPORT TIRRC’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19
Ongoing Work
As our staff transitions to remote work we are reorienting our organizing, campaign, and services infrastructure but continuing with the same urgency and focus. Here are some updates on just a few of our key campaigns:
Census 2020: This year we are leading a statewide campaign to ensure maximum participation of immigrants and refugees in the 2020 Census, including supporting more than 15 organizations through sub-grants and technical assistance. We are shifting our resources from in-person events to digital and phone-based strategies. We are using digital strategies to conduct our community education work, ensuring that individuals know how important it is to participate in the Census and also understand how to complete their forms. We will be organizing virtual phone banks and text message parties to reach the thousands of individuals in our membership and client base to ensure they have completed their Census. We are implementing peer-to-peer texting software to equip community leaders to efficiently engage their contacts and confirm they’ve completed the Census. We’ll also be investing in digital ads as both a persuasion tactic to motivate communities to complete the Census as well as to acquire a large list of cell phone numbers that can be used in our phone banking operation.
SCOTUS DACA Decision: We anticipate a decision on the DACA program to be issued by the Supreme Court any week now and are preparing rapid response plans for the worst case scenarios that will transform the lives of nearly 8000 Tennesseans. We are organizing DACA recipients across the state through digital gatherings and one-on-one calls, preparing critical resources and services to support DACA recipients in the wake of a decision. We are also working on advocacy and communications strategies to mobilize public support of DACA recipients to push for ongoing protections at the local and national level. We are also continuing to encourage DACA renewals and are now offering remote representation to assist individuals with their renewal applications.
Tennessee is Home Capital Campaign: While we are in the midst of this extraordinarily difficult moment, we are so grateful to be able to imagine a brighter and better future in our new home. That’s why we’re excited that our capital campaign to build a new office space and community hub in the heart of Nashville’s immigrant community is moving forward. We have raised more than 75% of our campaign budget, and we still plan to move into our new home late summer 2020. In this uncertain economy, we have secured a loan from SunTrust to cover our remaining campaign balance in the case that fundraising efforts extend beyond 2020. Despite new demands on the construction industry and increases in the price of some imported materials, we are excited to begin site work on the land and have set the off-site construction of the prefabricated warehouse in motion. Additionally, we’re carefully choosing playground equipment to create a welcoming and accessible place for families to gather, and we’re in the final phase of selecting artists to paint murals on the interior and exterior of our building.