Today we’re pleased to announce four new grants from our Immigrant Rights Fund that address ongoing community needs stemming from policy changes initiated in 2017 and 2018 by the current presidential administration—including family separation, tightening restrictions on refugees entering the country, the Muslim Travel Ban, and protections for immigrant workers.

Sustained Response

Grants that address long-term challenges facing immigrant communities across Brooklyn ranging from $10,000 to $25,000.

• Arab-American Family Support Center: $15,000 to support and sustain their free Legal Services Program, which prioritizes family reunification and has provided assistance to families—especially Yemeni families—affected by the travel ban.
  
  Many of the clients that the Arab-American Family Support Center work with are Yemeni who are dealing with the ramifications of this travel ban, meaning that their family members cannot travel into of the United States. The ban is called a "Muslim ban" because it applies to Muslim majority nations (except for Venezuela and North Korea).
   
• Emma’s Torch: $10,000 to support their 12-week, paid culinary training and apprenticeship program for refugees and asylees. In 2019 their program, currently based at their Carroll Gardens restaurant, will expand to the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch, where they will take over the café and develop partnerships to offer ESL and adult education to participants.
  
  Emma’s Torch works with refugees who have fled violence and discrimination, and the administration has shown that it does not regard international conventions around treatment of refugees and asylum seekers, often painting these individuals as criminals.
   
• Documented: $10,000 to support the nonprofit news site solely devoted to covering New York City’s immigrants and the policies that affect their lives. They provide original reporting on the ground-level impact of shifts in labor policy, law–enforcement practices and bureaucratic requirements, and on the effects of new federal directives.
  
  Documented promotes high quality reporting on immigration issues at a hyper-local level in Brooklyn, and holds politicians and institutions accountable when questionable practices are exposed.

Action Fund

Support for ongoing civil resistance and organizing efforts—including community-building, public education, action planning, and event logistics—with grants up to $2,500.

• Adhikaar: $2,500 for the National Nail Salon Workers Exchange, taking place on March 25, 2019 at Barnard College, which will bring together immigrant nail salon workers to transform the nail salon industry and build a multi-racial and multi-ethnic movement centered on workers’ rights.
  
  Adhikaar received an Immediate Response grant last year to support their response to the removal of TPS protections for Nepalese immigrants. Their work focuses on essential services to new immigrants working in marginalized industries such as domestic workers, nail salon workers, gas stations and restaurants.

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Pledge your support to Brooklyn’s immigrant communities:

Give to the Immigrant Rights Fund today

100% of contributions will directly support vital immigrant-serving nonprofits