Friday, 3 February 2017

How to Be An Active Ally for Refugees and Immigrants + Best of the Web

If there’s one lesson I’ve learned from working here at Design*Sponge for the past 12 years, it’s that every person’s story deserves to be heard, understood and respected. When our community embraces a richly diverse group of people from all backgrounds, religions, ages, races, abilities, identities and points of view, we all benefit. Lately there’s been a lot of talk about immigration, refugees and what it means to feel safe at home. I know some will feel those discussions don’t belong here, but all I can see are the millions of ways in which those conversations intersect what we do here every day when we discuss homes, businesses and how families live and love. Our creative community is made up of thousands upon thousands of people who came here from other countries, and our goal at D*S will always be to welcome them into our homes, online and off. Because my personal life is devoted to social and activist causes (if you don’t follow us on Instagram, that is where most of those posts live), I’ve been hearing from people who would like advice or guidance on how to be an active ally to those directly affected by changing immigration and refugee policies.

So today I teamed up with Libby VanderPloeg (who has been an incredible example of someone using their art to inspire activism and discussion) to create a practical guide for being an active ally to immigrants and refugees in your community. The key word here is active, because so many people are seeking concrete ways to help, so we spoke with experts at several organizations to create a list of 8 actions you can take, no matter where you live, to help out. The most important thing is to listen first, so be sure to check out the end of our video above for ways to plug into your local immigrant and refugee community to hear what they need help with most right now. Thank you to Joshua Gershman at the International Rescue Committee for his guidance and feedback on this video. xo, grace

bestofweb23

bestofds23



from Design*Sponge http://www.designsponge.com/2017/02/how-to-be-an-active-ally-for-refugees-and-immigrants-best-of-the-web.html

from Home Improvment http://notelocreesnitu.tumblr.com/post/156766627279

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