Long Beach Immigrant Rights Coalitions’ abolitionist-immigrant centered movement work, organizing power building, embodied health justice driven, and organizing work have emboldened an immigrant led and centered movement, committed to the collective liberation and social justice of Black Indigenous People Of Color (BIPOC)  undocumented families in Los Angeles County with a focus in Long Beach, the second largest city in the County.

Community Members rallied and mobilized to ensure that undocumented and immigrant families most impacted by systemic oppression and the lasting impacts of COVID-19 had life affirming resources in the years to come as part of our advocacy component in our Leadership development pipelines. (Immigrants are LA campaign rally in Downtown LA)

LBIRC’s liberation-centered leadership development and organizing pipelines, within its’ Power Building has been essential in guiding and supporting immigrant families to organize, strengthen political consciousness, learn strategies for community organizing, build power in impacted immigrant communities to  shift systems of oppression in their communities, grow power together to foster connection, alignment, synchronicity, and strategic visioning and organizing power. LBIRC’s Power Building pipelines include our Leadership Academy and IMPACT Fellowship, both of which educated and trained more than 30 community members on organizing power, strengthened political consciousness, and ensured that resources in our community move away from the systems of punishment– to conditions and systems that support BIPOC immigrants’ capacity to lead full dignified lives, with the material resource, connection, and built eco-political infrastructure necessary for communities to truly thrive.

Our Progress, Our Movement Toward Liberation

Elizabeth Gonzalez is just one of our phenomenal graduates who embodies community, transformative justice, and emboldened leadership in every way possible. Not only is Elizabeth a graduate of our Leadership Academy, she is now a  leader in our mutual aid programming alongside our mutual aid volunteers who support nutrition, wellness, and food distribution for thousands of immigrant families every year.

Quote from Elizabeth Gonzalez: “Me gusta trabajar con la comunidad. Me ha impactado a mi como persona y como madre de familia de 3 hijas. Y yo logré mi propósito de trabajo porque se me abrieron puertas después de tomar el programa de liderazgo de la Coalición de los derechos de los inmigrantes. Me dio la confianza para comunicarse con la comunidad”

“I enjoy working with the community. It has impacted me as a person and as a mother of 3 daughters. And I achieved my work purpose because doors opened for me after taking the Immigrant Rights Coalition leadership program. I gained the confidence to communicate with the community. It opened up so many doors for me” Elizabeth Gonzalez

Remarkably, LBIRC had a total of 29  immigrant community members  graduate from its leadership development pipelines.

“Quiero agradecer a la Academia de Liderazgo por toda la sabiduría que nos enseñaron. Fue un curso intenso pero muy valioso lleno de mucha información muy válida para nosotros como padres para nosotros poder tener herramientas y poder educar a nuestro hijos.Pero no solo a nuestros hijos, también a la comunidad.”

“I want to thank the Leadership Academy for all the wisdom they taught us. It was an intense but very valuable course filled with a lot of very valuable information for us as parents so we can have tools to educate our children, but not only our children, but also the community.”- Claudia Cispes

Moreover, many of our graduates participated and advocated through phone zaps as part of the Immigrants Are LA Campaign (IRLA), which called for investment and support for immigrant centered programming in Los Angeles. Though as we know many undocumented and immigrant workers are valuable frontline workers which kept the City stable during the pandemic, the proper investment and support was not given to many immigrant families who were frontline workers.  IRLA’s campaign goals and its most recent win when the LA County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed phase 2 of ARPA funds spending plan, allocating 30 million to immigrant specific programs is a testament to the work of our leadership academy participants.

Since LBIRC received the LA2050 Award in 2022, LBIRC has also fortified the foundation for its newest iteration of our IMPACT ( Immigrants Making Powerful Change Together) fellowship program which strengthened directly impacted community members’ leadership skills, deepened their political consciousness, and created a safe container and landing space for individuals to learn, share vulnerably, and build community amongst one another.  This past year, LBIRC brought together its IMPACT lead Enrique Cristobal along with many other community members to take part in the fellowship. The IMPACT fellowship has truly touched the lives of every community member who was apart of our fellowship, through deepening political consciousness, resource building, and through a fortification in community organizing and leadership skills—our fellows walked away with greater understanding on how systems of oppression were a creation by those who wanted to wield power for corruption, exploitation, and in the name capitalism and colonialism.

Many families developed the skills of advocacy, community organizing and leadership,  simultaneously, and in the same space with their children and young adults in the family, creating a beautiful, powerful intergenerational space, a critical component in generational healing, strengthening, and power building.  A powerful opportunity for students was to advocate for proper budget allocations that support their vision of a just City budget. Community members  learned how the budget process works and how to influence that  process to ensure that their voices are heard and impact budget allocations in the future. It is an organizing strategy aimed at building up the long term commitment and investment from community members most impacted by unbalanced budgetary allocations that are not in alignment with the communities’ priorities and voice.

Finally, immigrant families who are a part of leadership pipelines also have access to our mutual aid power hub which has distributed and served more than 761 families in the last 6 months alone!

We are thrilled to continue our work as part of the LA2050 Grants Challenge. This grant has allowed us to build dynamic leadership and strengthen our immigrant movement for liberation!

Visit LBIRC online at www.lbirc.org  and follow us on social media on Instagram at: @lbirc562 and on Twitter at: @LBIRC562 and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/LBIRC562