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CODEDI

COALITION FOR THE DIGNITY AND RIGHTS OF IMMIGRANTS

Leadership

Because the Latino immigrant community in Cincinnati is so new and has grown so quickly there are few resources in our community on how to better integrate into the community at large. There are few immigrants with the skills and experience that can act as a bridge between the established and immigrant communities. In response to this lack of leadership CODEDI created the Leadership Program to provide immigrants the knowledge, skills and experiences they need to aid the community in its development and help represent the community’s perspective to the institutions of the established community that want to work towards integration.

We believe that integration should be a conscious process where immigrants are provided the space to reflect on the differences between their own culture and the established culture, so they can actively choose what they should change and what to hold onto as they make a life for themselves here in Cincinnati. A comprehensive integration also requires some changes from the established community and its institutions as they adapt to the influx of people from different cultures. The goal of the leadership program is to train individuals that will help to facilitate these adaptations both in the immigrant community as well as the established. The Leadership Program of CODEDI provides immigrants with a process to better understand and reflect on integration as an individual and as a member of a community.

The Leadership Program of CODEDI provides immigrants a process to better understand and reflect on integration as an individual and as a member of a community. CODEDI believes that integration should be a conscious process that allows individuals and communities to decide what from their culture and old way of life they would like to keep, what they would like to change and what needs to be adapted to their new situation. By providing a space for conversation and reflection on these issues the participants in the leadership process gain a better understanding and actively participate in facing the issues that are important to them. The program also allows immigrants to understand the perspective of the diverse established communities in Cincinnati in an effort to foster understanding and collaboration. Finally, the program provides participants with concrete knowledge and skill that allow them to participate more effectively on efforts related to the community’s integration.

An increasing number of immigrant families are running into problems in the Juvenile Court. In large part these problems are the result of cultural differences between how children are raised in rural Latin America and in urban Cincinnati. As one judge observed, “it’s not that they are bad parents but that they don’t understand how we do things here.” The Child and Family Protection Program of CODEDI principally works to help immigrant families which have found themselves in legal problems regarding issues of child welfare. CODEDI accompanies these families during the legal process providing moral support and works with local social service agencies such as Hamilton County Jobs and Family Services and the Hamilton County Juvenile Courts to reunite parents and children.

CODEDI offers acculturation classes for the parents to help them understand the norms for child raising here in the US and how they differ from their own upbringing. These classes also provide the parents a chance to reflect on what they would like to maintain from their cultural background as well as what they need to change to function in this society. These courses are often mandated by the court for the parents. CODEDI also provides the court and others involved with the case with information on cultural norms in Latin America so they can have a better understanding of the situation.

CODEDI works with the Consulates from several Latin-American countries, such as Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru, to conduct mobile consulates here in Cincinnati. Over the last five years more than eight thousand immigrants from these countries have participated in the consulates where they can obtain a variety of consular documents for themselves and their children.

It is very important that immigrants have birth certificates and passports from their home countries for themselves and their children. Government issued photo identification is essential for many everyday tasks that facilitate integration such as opening a bank account. It is also important for immigrants to obtain U.S. passports for their children who were born in the United States. In the event that their family might be separated, the children’s passports will allow them to travel so they can be reunited with their parents. If the children were born here and are taken back to their parent’s home, the double citizenship will help the children to live in that country as a citizen and not an immigrant.

CODEDI helps about 2,000 people yearly to obtain this documentation. Each of these visits involves several days of full-time activity in order to accommodate the hundreds of clients that attend each mobile consulate.