MA DREAM Camp Revisited

This Valentine’s Day weekend, students from all over Massachusetts put a hold on their dates and came out to UMass Boston for a weekend of sharing, training, leadership, and organizing. The Student Immigrant Movement and the United We Dream coalition co-hosted an impressive movement-building training for almost 100 youth. These new leaders of the movement were instructed in the organizing concepts of Shared Story, Shared Strategy, Action, Shared Structure, and Relationships, and learned what it means to be a leader in their communities. Experienced trainers flew in from all over the country to talk about these five key principles of organizing, and participants broke into facilitated groups to put their newfound knowledge into practice.

These groups were not just practice groups – SIM chapters were formed in 12 regions of the state (with groups also formed in RI and ME), with clear purposes and leadership structures. These chapters are now armed with the tools and skills necessary to catapult themselves and their communities into action to recruit new leaders and move legislative targets to pass Immigration Reform and the DREAM Act.The movement now advances with unmatched cohesion as the statewide field organizing strategy falls into place. Teams in target areas will be in communication with regional leads, who in turn are always in contact with SIM’s statewide organizer, in order to make sure that all our SIM members are sharing responsibility and advancing the strategy of the organization.

The Dream Camp was designed in part by well-known community organizer Marshall Ganz, now a professor at Harvard’s JFK School of Government. He was also one of the architects of the similarly structured Obama Camps that created a legion of community leaders that helped propel Barack Obama into the presidency. Marshall helped close off the training on Sunday with some words of encouragement.

This is just one of many Dream Camps – trainings are happening all over the country, with 10 already completed and many more to come. Immigrant Youth and supporters, all over the nation, have had enough of this injustice and are reaching out for the means to empower themselves and effect meaningful change for the betterment of themselves and their communities. Here in Massachusetts, we aim now for In-State Tuition, and even if you did not have the opportunity to join us the past weekend, there is much that can be done. Donate to our cause at http://www.simforus.com/donate and help a new generation of Americans fulfill their dreams of education and a better future.

-Conrado