https://twitter.com/BHTCampaign
The Building Home Together network was established in 2016 and is comprised of organizations, community leaders, advocates and systems with shared concerns about the state of immigrant and refugee community wellbeing. In working together, we hope to lift up and support the leadership, visibility and voices of diverse immigrant and refugee communities in Alameda Cou
nty and in the greater Bay Area. As of 2014, the foreign-born population represents 34% of Alameda County's residents, and that number is growing. The time for change is now! Our shared vision for change includes the intersection of work, health, legal rights and protections, visibility and community empowerment as they impact all immigrants and refugees. Building Home Together sees this work as healing. Our efforts seek changes in policy and praxis including addressing language access barriers to services and participation in civic life, improving coordination of services and resources for immigrants and refugees across all systems, improving cultural competency and understanding of immigrant and refugee communities for organizations and systems that support their wellbeing, and strengthening accountability through policies and infrastructure built to maintain the highest overall quality of attention to immigrant and refugee community needs and aspirations. Building Home Together recognizes that the way our most vulnerable individuals and communities fair impacts and implicates everyone. Working on the quality of life for immigrants and refugees requires building relationships across communities, building allies and being allies for social justice and health equity. It requires creating spaces for curiosity, dialogue and deep sharing, building trust, deepening mutual understandings, cultivating durable relationships, and shifting from a culture that promotes divisiveness and competitiveness between communities to a culture of building, together, a community that is home for everyone. In 2016, Building Home Together is organizing a campaign for the County and area cities to formally adopt a resolution that prioritizes being welcoming communities for immigrants and refugees. As part of this request, we are asking for investment in a process that will engage the diverse stakeholders necessary to create a comprehensive plan to address the needs of immigrant and refugee communities, including pushing for the establishment of a Newcomer Immigrant and Refugee Welcome Center that will serve as a hub for communities and the network of organizations and systems that advocate for and serve them.
