Research on Barriers and Opportunities for Increasing Leadership in Immigrant and Refugee Communities: Public Report

Prepared for: The Hyams Foundation, Inc.
Prepared by: MOSAICA: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism

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Executive Summary

BACKGROUND: This report summarizes the results of a study undertaken in 1999 to assist the Hyams Foundation in deciding how its grantmaking in civic participation might best be used to increase the development and exercise of leadership among immigrants and refugees. The original report prepared to assist the Foundation in its internal decision making included detailed program options and recommendations. This public report includes the full text of study findings, with summary recommendations and more limited appendices.

METHODOLOGY: The study involved qualitative research carried out by a project team from MOSAICA: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism, a multicultural nonprofit organization in Washington, DC. Information sources included staff and board leaders of organizations serving and/or led by immigrants and refugees, as well as individual leaders and  experts, in Boston and nationwide. Data collection involved personal and telephone interviews, e-mail discussions, focus groups, and literature and document reviews.

FINDINGS: The study generated information about barriers to and opportunities for leadership development and about promising program models and strategies.

Barriers: Barriers to the development and exercise of leadership by immigrants and refugees include both personal obstacles faced by individuals and/or families — and at times certain populations of immigrants and refugees — and the barriers encountered by organizations seeking to foster leadership in immigrant and refugee communities. The most direct and severe individual barriers to leadership identified involve low income, limited formal education, and language, which often interact to limit opportunities for leadership. Immigrants and refugees who have low incomes, limited formal education, and/or little or no English language capacity face great difficulties in obtaining access to leadership training or finding other opportunities to develop and exercise leadership. These barriers may also negatively affect their self-confidence, an important factor in the exercise of leadership. The most significant organizational barriers faced by immigrant- and refugee-serving organizations as they work to foster leadership development include insufficient resources (specially general support funds), the lack of a clearly stated organizational focus on leadership development, limited staff time and experience, and limited management experience. Home country politics,  national history, and cultural norms can also serve as barriers to leadership development.

Opportunities: Immigrant and refugee leadership building is facilitated most directly by two realities: (1) immigrants and refugees bring to this country a wealth of personal experience and energy; and (2) organizations working with immigrants and refugees, particularly those that are immigrant/refugee-controlled, are uniquely positioned to help build leadership in these communities. These are the organizations most trusted by immigrants and refugees and most able to locate and involve them in services and leadership building. 

Defining “leadership development”: There is no single agreed-upon definition of leadership or community leadership. There is agreement that community leadership should involve and empower community residents to participate in decision making and develop their own leadership skills. The National Council of La Raza has defined community leadership development as “training and other formal and informal learning opportunities, usually but not necessarily including a series of informational and skill development sessions as well as ‘learning by doing’ at the neighborhood level, designed to enable participants to become more — and more effectively — involved in [their] community.”

Models: The study identified many leadership-building programs, models, and strategies used with immigrants and refugees. The programs can be described with reference to variables such as sponsoring organizations, internal versus external focus, targeted participants, geographic scope, leadership focus, leadership or learning model, structure, topics for skill development, and leadership-building techniques. A basic differentiation is whether programs focus internally — on staff, board members, and program volunteers, or externally — on clients, activists, and other community residents, or whether they have a dual focus. MOSAICA found that in Boston, internal leadership-building efforts are less common and often less formal than external programs. 

Programs vary in the types of leaders they are trying to develop and their relationship to a theoretical or practical model. Some projects begin with personal empowerment and then prepare individuals for civic participation. Some emphasize advocacy. Some focus on leadership through community organizing, often around specific areas such as workers’ rights or parent involvement in education. Other programs seek to strengthen nonprofit board or staff leadership skills. Programs may be based on a defined program model such as Paulo Freire’s popular education or other community-building approaches. Some borrow from many different leadership experiences. Most programs appear to be based more on practical experience than on theoretical frameworks, although they may incorporate well documented techniques. 

The study documents a continuum of leadership-building efforts encompassing a range of activities designed to develop or enhance leadership skills, through training, practical assignments that involve learning by doing, and opportunities for exercising leadership. The continuum includes both internal and external leadership-building programs and models. It categorizes programs by title and type of sponsoring organization, geographic scope and target group, leadership-building focus or approach, examples identified during the study, advantages and strengths, and disadvantages and weaknesses. All these models involve conscious, deliberate attempts to build immigrant/refugee leadership.

Program effectiveness: The study team found very little research or documentation on best practices of programs with a focus on immigrant and refugee leadership. However, leadership materials, studies, and evaluations by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the National Council of La Raza’s Hispanic Leadership Development Support Initiative offer insights useful to immigrant/refugee-focused leadership-building efforts. Most of the Boston programs have not been formally evaluated, and there has been no longitudinal evaluation. However, many individuals can identify effective programs and models. The following are among the strategies, models, and factors associated with program success:

  • Leadership models organized around issues critical to immigrants’ lives;

  • Efforts that bring refugees and immigrants together across nationalities and cultures;

  • Programs that provide training, community assignments, and materials in participants’ native language;

  • Leadership models that include forums or meetings that provide an opportunity for immigrant and refugee staff or board members to meet and share experiences;

  • Models involving training of trainers, “each one teach one” commitments, or other means of ensuring a “ripple effect” that multiplies program impact; and

  • Organization-specific efforts involving a broad commitment to leadership building throughout the organization.

 
Best practices: MOSAICA reviewed existing evaluations for information related to the best practices and success factors, challenges, and the impact of immigrant/refugee-focused and other grassroots leadership programs. The following are some broad findings regarding best practices:

  • Leadership development should have three beneficiaries: the individual and his/her family, the community, and organizations that work to strengthen communities.

  • Leadership programs should recognize that leaders are both born and developed, and can come from every sort of background.

  • An effective leadership development program teaches by example; it involves its participants in decision-making, models the leadership behaviors it wishes to teach, and provides opportunities for participants to “learn by doing.”

  • Leadership programs are most effective when they include a variety of components and techniques, and a major emphasis on experiential learning.

  • Organizing and advocacy-oriented leadership programs often need several stages, from individual empowerment to community organizing, from focus on a single issue to “an understanding of the interrelationship of issues, power and change strategies in a community.”

  • One of the most important responsibilities of an immigrant/refugee-focused or other grassroots leadership effort is to expand opportunities for leadership building to individuals who are not likely to be included in mainstream programs.

  • Leadership programs must recognize, reflect, and address cultural issues, understanding their impact on learning styles, communications, relationships, and other facets of leadership development.


CONCLUSIONS: Effective leadership programs typically have a strong community base and are designed to reflect the needs of specific communities and constituencies. Grantmaking to support immigrant and refugee leadership development is likely to have the greatest impact when it:

  • Is based on continuing access to information about conditions and issues within the immigrant and refugee communities it wishes to assist;

  • Focuses on community-oriented, grassroots leadership development efforts;

  • Supports initiatives that are designed to create change at three levels: the individual, the community, and one or more community-based organizations;

  • Recognizes the importance of both “inreach” — for staff, board, and program volunteer leadership development — and “outreach” — for community leadership development;

  • Helps to build several levels and generations of leadership;

  • Allows for the use of varied strategies and types of groups, as determined by the applicant;

  • Provides grantees the flexibility to refine strategies based on implementation experience; 

  • Favors programs developed and run by immigrant- or refugee-led organizations or\overseen by a project steering committee reflective of the target population; 

  • Requires and helps to support qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the programs funded; and

  • Supplements grants with the availability of organizational development assistance from culturally competent sources.


RECOMMENDATIONS: The Hyams Foundation could use its resources effectively to support any or all of the following:
Leadership programs including:

  • citywide programs;

  • neighborhood-focused programs;

  • internal programs targeting the staff, board members, and/or volunteers of a  single organization; and/or

  • programs that combine elements of internal and external programs. 

Leadership support initiatives, including:

  • technical assistance for leadership development;

  • a computerized registry of leaders trained through local programs;

  • a mentoring initiative;

  • leadership program evaluation; and/or 

  • interpretation equipment and training in effective interpretation.

Each of these options would increase and enhance leadership development and the exercise of leadership among immigrants and benefit the broader Boston community.  
 
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