In January, we shared a blog celebrating immigrants and refugees, recognizing their place at the heart of our communities and economy. We also spoke out against the harm U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) continue to do to our communities. Now, we’d like to highlight three standout immigrant-led organizations, along with the ways you can best support them.
Super Familia
Our relationship with the organization Super Familia began in 2024 through the Generational Wealth Initiative, a collaborative effort led by the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. We were fortunate to hear from Rosario Lopez in March when they joined us for a Lunch Lab webinar to share about Super Familia’s history and current mutual aid and community defense work. You can watch the Lunch Lab recording below or on our Youtube channel.
Super Familia was co-founded in 2020 by undocumented and formerly detained youth who began organizing during the pandemic through mutual aid networks and migrant solidarity campaigns. One of these founding members was José Ventura who arrived in the U.S. as an unaccompanied migrant child from El Salvador and survived kidnapping, torture, detention, and abandonment. He was released from a youth detention center in Washington on his 18th birthday with no support and nowhere to go. José found community by organizing with other displaced youth. He believed that healing should not require perfection or punishment, and that young people need spaces where they can grieve, create, and support each other without fear. Sadly, José passed away when he was just 19 years old due to an overdose.
Since 2020, Super Familia has organized mutual aid for migrants who are struggling to pay rent and utility bills, buy groceries, cover legal fees, etc. They have a food pantry, as well as a Migrant Survival Fund. The best way to stay up to date on Super Familia’s calls for mutual aid is through their Instagram account: @superfamilia_kc.
Super Familia is also organizing community defense to protect community members from increased ICE and CBP raids and arrests, as well as pressuring King County to take action to protect migrants. Their demands include:
- Guaranteed legal representation for those who are in removal proceedings
- Access to food
- Establish a community care fund
- Apply State pressure
- No more surveillance
- No evictions
- Space to safely voice opinions and concerns
- Oust ICE/immigration enforcement from the County and State
Lake City Collective
We were excited for César García, co-founder of Lake City Collective, to participate in our Economics for Emancipation King County learning series this year.
Lake City Collective (LCC) is the only immigrant-led community-based organization in the north end of Seattle and King County. LCC is operated by and for the community it serves. LCC’s mission is to empower underrepresented communities across ages, abilities, genders, and cultures, transforming their reality by improving social, economic, environmental, and living conditions through self-advocacy and community programs. “We shape our own future while preserving our heritage.”
LCC has been doing community work for over 13 years. They serve around 1,200 families and small businesses from North Seattle and King County, and some from South Snohomish, through educational programs, environmental justice initiatives, economic empowerment programs, cultural events, access to recreation, and more.
During the pandemic, LCC did not close. They were the only community-based organization in the area serving as a mutual aid hub.
In addition, LCC engaged in over five years of advocacy to redevelop a polluted local park. All that tireless advocacy paid off! The construction for the new park (with funds from Seattle, King County, and Washington State) will start this summer. They also succeeded in closing a dangerous street in Little Brook to create a community-led plaza, in partnership with the City of Seattle.
What is the best way to support LCC? César shared, “We’re seeing many neighbors forming mutual aid groups to support immigrants nowadays, and that is great. That said, it’s important for them to understand that minority-led CBOs are rooted in community and in relationships we have fostered for a decade or longer. In that regard, we protect our community, and we have the duty to keep them safe. So if people wish to support them, it’s best to coordinate with the CBO leadership and let them lead the way to identify what is best for their community.”
LCC is currently working hard to build a resilience hub. The best way you can help their mission and dream of building this equitable development project is by reaching out to them at https://lakecitycollective.org/form.html to start the conversation and learn more about LCC.
César added, “We like to tap into people’s skills, so help can be in the form of an ability. We have had volunteers who tell us that they like to volunteer with us because other nonprofits ‘only want my money.’ There are others who are in the position of contributing funds that can go to our greatest need, and that has helped us in the past to pay our center’s rent, utilities or programs that we run without any dedicated funding. Last but not least, it’s equally important to be patient, as it may take time to connect with us. We are already stretched very thin, and have lots of things on our plate to keep the organization and our families going.”
Drivers Union
We first engaged with the Drivers Union in 2021 when Drivers Union Field Representative and Organizer Lata Ahmed participated in our New Economy Washington Frontline Communities Fellowship.
Drivers Union is an association of drivers who work for UBER, LYFT, and other app-based transportation platforms. They promote fairness, justice, and transparency in Washington’s personal transportation industry. This includes protecting drivers’ rights; raising standards to ensure a safe, reliable transportation network that works for both riders and drivers; and building driver unity to give drivers a collective voice.
A high percentage of app-based rideshare drivers are immigrants. Understandably, many drivers are anxious about the increase in ICE and CBP activity and have expressed these fears to Drivers Union leadership. In response, Drivers Union has shared Know Your Rights information and encouraged immigrant drivers to connect with the Washington State Immigrant Solidarity Network and other resources.
At this time, the best way to support Drivers Union is by visiting the “Take Action” section of their website to learn about and take action for their current campaigns. For example, Drivers Union is running a “4-Way Stop Campaign for Rideshare Fairness” to demand that UBER and LYFT stop taking high corporate commissions, stop overcharging riders, stop flooding the streets with too many new drivers, and stop unsafe working conditions.
Thank you so much to these organizations for the critical work they are doing to support immigrants, refugees, and all of our community members! They’re putting a solidarity economy into action by resisting harmful economic systems and building new economic systems that put people over corporate profits.
