Eight projects and 12 seed grants from the Reilly-Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment show a range of how UW–Madison faculty, staff and students can collaborate with community members to co-create and share knowledge and solutions that benefit and enrich the lives of the people of Wisconsin, the nation and the world.
The Wisconsin Latino Immigrant-Serving Organizations Project led by School for Workers Professor Armando Ibarra and School of Human Ecology Associate Professor Carolina Sarmiento was selected as a 2024 project.
The Wisconsin Latino Immigrant-Serving Organizations Project
The primary purpose of this action research, designed collaboratively with Project Respect and Voces de la Frontera, is to map and connect potential and existing immigrant serving organizations in the state of Wisconsin. This would be the first state-wide effort of this kind to identify organizations’ key priorities, strengths, and needs in serving immigrant communities in their local contexts. The effort builds on existing partnerships among the School for Workers, Project Respect, Voces de la Frontera, and the School of Human Ecology that focus on supporting immigrant survivors of human trafficking, and building on essential worker experiences in addressing threats to health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the growing and diverse needs of migrant communities, the effort will enable organizations to collaborate and better support immigrant communities and, specifically, strengthen the capacity of organizations, such as Project Respect and Voces de la Frontera, to provide immigrant survivors of exploitation of various forms with advocacy and support. The mapping of immigrant serving organizations is the basis to support increased coordination and collaboration between organizations, state agencies, and other stakeholders, as well as identify case studies that other organizations can learn from. Case study visits will also provide a time to present preliminary results in local settings. Together, the survey, map, and case studies will help produce a concrete tool for the organizations, social workers, teachers, and migrant workers recurring to them.