Advocacy Sessions
The Power of the Story in Organizing and Advocacy
During this session, we will further explore key components of bridging the gap between direct service and community organizing through expanding storytelling and communications with the media. We will focus on how refugees and immigrants can lift their voices and tell their own stories to impact the public narrative. We will explore how the voices, stories and leadership development expands opportunities for advocacy and civic engagement and even holding appointed or elected offices.
Following this session, participants will:
Understand the power of storytelling as a tool in organizing and advocacy efforts.
Understand the basics of how to use the story of self to further their advocacy goals.
Presenters
Deborah Baliraine Jane
Deborah Jane is a survivor of a ferocious acid attack that almost left her blind in her native Uganda, East Africa. The story of her attack and her persistence in her successful fight to have her children join her in the United States was featured in the widely acclaimed 2020 Netflix documentary “Immigration Nation.” A staunch advocate for immigration rights, Deborah believes all refugees fleeing their countries to avoid persecution, deserve empathy and serious consideration for resettlement in the United States and other countries where human rights are upheld. She has made several presentations on immigration issues, and has been featured in many media publications, including a centerpiece story in the Columbus Dispatch newspapers. Deborah recently became a United States citizen. She lives with her four children in Columbus, Ohio, where she works as a manager at Kroger. She holds an associate degree in hotel and institutional catering.
Maria Cortez-Perez, Refugee Community Organizer, Church World Service
Maria Cortez-Perez is the CWS Refugee Community Organizer for Greensboro, NC. Ms. Cortez-Perez graduated from Wake Forest University Class of 2020 with a major in Sociology concentration in Immigration Studies and a Minor in Communications. She was awarded the Sociological Community Engagement Award her Senior year at Wake Forest University, and served as the youngest Board Member for Latino Community Services of Winston Salem. Ms. Cortez-Perez has dedicated her life to immigrant rights and and social justice. When she graduated high school in 2014 she began to tell her story about being undocumented and advocating on behalf of the undocumented community for access to higher education. She also led the Let’s Learn: Instate-Tuition Campaign in the Triad through American Friends Service Committee in 2015. Ms. Cortez-Perez is also an OTHER VOICES Alumni from the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and she actively seeks ways to engage with the immigrant and refugee community in her role with CWS. Ms. Cortez-Perez’s experience as an advocate and leader of the immigrant community is exemplary of how “Story Telling” can lead you down the path of success and liberation of the mind.
Rachel Koelzer, Communications Manager, NAKASEC
Rachel Koelzer is an organizer, activist, speaker, and writer. Currently, Rachel is the Communications Manager for NAKASEC, a national nonprofit committed to achieving racial, economic, and social justice for Korean and Asian Americans. Drawing on her experiences as a transracial, transnational adoptee and Asian-American woman, Rachel is interested in what connects us and invites everyone to explore what is needed for social transformation and healing towards collective liberation.
Watch Session
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