What We Do
OneAmerica's mission is to advance the fundamental principles of democracy and justice through building power in immigrant communities, in collaboration with key allies. Initially named Hate Free Zone, the organization was founded immediately after September 11, 2001 to address the backlash in a post 9/11 world against immigrant communities of color, primarily Muslims, Arab Americans, East Africans, and South Asians. Recognizing a critical need for a strong immigrant rights organization, OneAmerica quickly expanded to fill that gap. Today, OneAmerica is the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington State, working both in the state and nationally with leading partners in varied communities and sectors to ensure that immigrant communities and their rights are recognized and upheld in our democracy.
Much of our work begins directly in and with immigrant communities. We believe that community organizing -- identifying issues, mobilizing individuals, and connecting communities to policy makers to bring about larger social change -- is essential to good public policy. Ultimately, we work to engage immigrants and the broader community in democracy, providing tools that are needed to ensure their full participation. Our civic engagement activities include voter registration, education and mobilization, and acceptable nonpartisan grassroots and direct lobbying with local, state and federal officials on key issues that matter to immigrants. From 2007-2009, OneAmerica conducted the largest ever immigrant voter registration and mobilization drive, registering over 24,000 new immigrant citizens to vote.
In 2009, OneAmerica launched an organizational and individual membership campaign. Our organizational members participate in a coalition roundtable around key immigrant integration and immigration reform issues, and include ethnic community organizations, legal service providers, labor unions and churches. Our individual members are actively engaged in organizing and policy activities, providing their own stories and experiences to inform the work. Several individual members have taken the initiative to form OneAmerica base community groups across the state. We work with our members to identify leaders, provide them with training on specific skills such as political analysis and public speaking, and then ensure they have the opportunities to take leadership on issues that are important to them and their communities.
OneAmerica has a successful track record of actively shaping policy and educating policy makers about issues around immigrants and immigration at the local, state and federal levels. Locally, OneAmerica has worked to pass resolutions, ordinances and develop policies that acknowledge the rights and needs of immigrants. At the State level, OneAmerica is leading the development of an immigrant integration agenda. This has included working with the Governor's office to ensure a Governor's New Americans Executive Order in 2008, and to establish a New Americans Policy Council to advise the Governor on key issues around immigrant integration. OneAmerica's Executive Director was appointed by Washington Governor Gregoire to be Vice-Chair of the Policy Council. OneAmerica also actively participates in national coalitions addressing immigration reform including serving in leadership roles with the Rights Working Group national coalition around due process rights of immigrants, and the Immigrant Organizing Committee of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM), staffed by the Center for Community Change.
OneAmerica also undertakes essential research that helps educate policy makers and the general public. In 2008, OneAmerica and the Seattle University Law School's Human Rights Clinic published a report on the human rights violations occurring within the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. In 2009, OneAmerica published a report titled Building Washington's Future: Contributions of Immigrants to Washington State's Economy. OneAmerica will continue to identify and undertake research that supports our mission and vision.
OneAmerica believes that effective communications campaigns are essential to shaping public opinion and increasing understanding of immigrant integration and immigration reform issues. We work on designing materials for general publication, as well as on specific ethnic and mainstream media campaigns that can shape public opinion and speak to the broader community as well as immigrants. One example of our innovative communications work is the Washington New Americans media campaign around the benefits of citizenship.
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