Orientation meeting for the first cohort of fellows of the Tamejavi Culture and Art Series.
Photo: AFSC
Founded in 1998 as a project of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), The Pan Valley Institute (PVI) creates a safe place for immigrants and refugees to learn from one another and build community. Inspired by the Highlander Research and Education Center in Tennessee, which served as an important training base for the civil rights movement of the mid-twentieth century, the Pan Valley Institute brings a diverse range of grassroots immigrant leaders together in cultural gatherings, leadership trainings, thematic workshops, fellowship programs, and residential retreats to increase immigrant participation and power across California’s Center Valley. Like the Highlander Center, PVI’s work is guided by the principles of popular education, participatory action research and cultural organizing.
