Project: Solidaridad Central Jersey Student Wing
Project Leaders: Annie Kim ([email protected]), Isabelle Embden ([email protected])
Community Partner: Solidaridad Central Jersey Pro Se Clinic
Project Description:
Volunteers with the Solidaridad Pro Se Clinic are committed to the fight for and advancement of immigrant rights in collaboration with Solidaridad Central Jersey. Volunteers will be tasked with supporting the mission and efforts of Solidaridad mainly through research and writing skills. Tasks will depend on the needs of the community partner, emphasizing our personalized approach. As an example, volunteers have previously worked on creating country condition indexes on locations where many asylum seekers (“neighbors”) we have worked with originated. These reports will assist Solidaridad in their compilation of supporting documents in asylum applications.
The first few meetings of the Solidaridad Student Wing will be focused around volunteer recruitment. The first session will host members of the Solidaridad board who will explain the work that Solidaridad does. Those who are interested in becoming volunteers in addition to being Student Wing members will join the second session, which will be a detailed training session on how to be a notetaker in asylum case teams so that they can start working on cases as soon as possible. Solidaridad representatives will be present at both sessions. Afterwards, the Student Wing will serve as a support group for student volunteers as well as answering questions about asylum and immigration.
Members of the Solidaridad Student Wing can choose from a variety of tasks to help Solidaridad:
- accompanying clinic coordinators on Trenton visits to obtain application signatures from neighbors
- carrying out admin tasks in the Solidaridad office which is at a 10 minute walk from campus (printing/copying/scanning applications, following up with work permits, other assignments as needed)
- serving as mentors for new student volunteers, answering questions, checking in during their shadowing period, and providing advice/support when a new student is assigned to a team
- training new notetakers before volunteering and educating them on the process of taking notes and completing I-589s
For fluent Spanish speakers who do not have enough time to commit to working on a single case weekly for about a month, there are short-term, single-session activities they could choose from:
- acting as interpreters to complete the demographics pages of I-589
- translating Spanish documents into English to supplement asylum applications
In addition to deepening connections to asylum seekers, the group will also deepen connections with a community organization in Princeton, breaking down the wall between the university and the Princeton community. The group will also strengthen the community within Princeton’s student body, allowing for students to come together through a passion for immigrant rights. It will create a space dedicated to doing social good and living in alignment with one’s values, and it will create a space dedicated to raising awareness about current immigration events on campus.
Frequency/Time Commitment Expected:
The student wing will meet for an hour each week to complete tasks set by Solidaridad. Some members may also choose to join the Solidaridad Pro Se Clinic as volunteers, which would be a separate time commitment.
Mode of communication: listserv email through my.princeton.edu
whatsapp group
Link to a google sign-up form: