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Proyecto Monarca

Proyecto Monarca (Project Monarch) is a comprehensive immigrants’ rights education and leadership development program designed by and for immigrants. Through a series of workshops, this program equips immigrants with the skills and knowledge required to engage fully in their new communities. Inmigrantes Latinos en Acción (ILA) offers this program to Spanish-speaking immigrants in Austin and Central Texas with the support of the AFSC-Austin office.

Named after the migrating butterfly, Proyecto Monarca unfolds in three phases. In the first phase, participants attend ten weekly workshops in Spanish on the rights and responsibilities of immigrants and on the different services available in the Austin area. For example, one workshop centers on the right to an education and on the responsibilities of parents and students in the public school system. Participants then share what they have learned in their neighborhoods, children's schools, and other settings.

In phase two, participants strengthen their leadership skills and become familiar with popular education methodologies. They learn how to engage their community in political advocacy, while urging people themselves to decide whether they support or oppose specific legislation. Likewise, they gain skills in media relations.

Phase Three provides hands-on experience in community organizing and leadership.

Participants:

• work with facilitators to identify central concerns in their communities; to envision solutions; and to develop strategies for achieving them.
• learn how to put campaigns into action and how to work with other organizations in coalitions.

In this third phase, participants organize the next round of Proyecto Monarca, enrolling a new group in the expanding program.

Proyecto Monarca creates a space for immigrants themselves to learn and plan what is best for them and their communities. By analyzing the position of immigrants in the global economy, these emerging local leaders also come to see the broader significance of community organizing aimed at changing power relations.

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