GIRRC Immigration Conference - Macon 2013
So this past Saturday was the first GIRRC Immigration
Conference in Macon. I was not planning to blog directly on this, but given the
big success it was I thought it deserved some space J. GIRRC stands for Georgia
Immigrants and Refugees Rights Coalition, it is the main umbrella organization
through we channel our advocacy effort in and outside the Georgia capitol, and
at one point last year we decided it was a good idea to have a conference. From
that far day, we have gone far. What originally was a conference planned for around
60 people grew all the way to almost 200, to the point of challenging the capacity
of our generous hosts, High Street Unitarian Universalist Church in
Macon. This is the link to the program of the conference, which includes additionallinks to the presenters, and the organizations that work for.
After the openings of rigor and the breakfast donated by the Refugee Women's Network (thank you very much Duoa!) and the Young Democrats of Georgia, we got our first
keynote speaker (yep, we opening with a boom), Anton Flores from Alterna. It was
the first time I heard Anton speaking, so I was curious. Took Anton 10
minutes to have us in his pocket, and for the next 50 he had the audience following the cadence of his soulful speech, that went from
nurturing to intense to real to hopeful. It ended with a fun and heartwarming
story that will I let you listen directly from him next time you have the
chance to hear him presenting.
After the stand-up ovation Anton got at the end
of his speech, we had a split session on Immigration 101 in charge of attorney
Amna Shirazi from the Shirazi Law Group and Communication and Language Beyond
the Base in charge of Rachel Steinhardt. Great information given in
both.
Then the next event was plenary panel with local
politicians and academics, and it was formed by Rep. Scott Holcomb, Dr.
Salvador Peralta, Rep. Virgil Fludd, Dr. Ying Zhen, and Rep. Pedro Marin. The panel
was facilitated by Dr. Debra Sabia from Georgia Southern University. It was great
to hear academic and political perspectives related to immigration, and look
for ways both can intertwine and work together to approach it.
After the panel and a yummy lunch of rigor, we
have our several break up sessions that covered Children and Families (presented
by Suttiwan Cox and Dr. April Schueths), Working with the Faith Community (presented
by Dr. Aquiles Martinez and Frank Mulcahy, Esq), Dreamers, DACA and Higher
Education (presented by attorney David Kennedy and author Gou Hang Wand),
Health Care (presented by Dr. Juan Luque, Nolan Kline and Maria Azuri, MSW) to
Legislative Updates (presented by Larry Pelegrini).
The day was coming to its end, and we have our
last key speaker of the conference, State House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.
I was interested to see her speech after the high bar Anton has set few hours
before. Stacey was not there to hear Anton speaking, nonetheless, her speech
was brought the house (church) down as well, and set up a great call of action
with her “Speak up, Show up, Stand up”.
After such an inspirational day, we have an
action planning session to brainstorm different actions that we could work
individually as an organization, facilitated by Maria Azuri and Major Paul
Bridges. If you like to be more involved, just ask to join GIRRC to this email girrc@yahoogroups.com, with a small blurb about you and/or your organization, and why you want to join.
Also, don’t forget to join our Facebook group, which is separated from our
email, and is a great source of information and outlet for future events.
We closed the day with a small reception of
cheese and wine, which was a fun and relaxing way to know more of the people we
spend the whole day together.
Big thanks and kudos to Ric Stewart, June
McDowall and Pat Burns, for their tireless groundwork putting this conference
together, Rev. Cynthia Prescott and High Street Unitarian Universalist Church
for hosting us (you guys have a beautiful church!), Debra Greenwood for
being such a gracious EmCee, Estela Martinez for the yummy food, fellow members
of the Steering Committee, to all those organizations and persons that openhandedly
sponsored our conference, to our presenters and speakers that donated their time
and knowledge to us, and all members and volunteers that worked so hard and
consistently to make this event a big success. Be sure this conference will not
have worked as it did without you.
It was close to midnight when I arrived home,
quite tired after have woke up at 5am to make it to Macon on time, but although
tired I have the serene satisfaction of a successful event, and the hope that
we can accomplish great things when we work together. We had activists, scholars,
professionals, students, and politicians, talking together about immigration in
the national and local level, discussing its challenges and calls of action.
All on this in the community of Macon, which rarely see
events of this nature, but that nonetheless, took full advantage of
the opportunity. Now the next step is walk the talk and follow up with
actions. I am confident we together can make this happen.
