FOR STUDENTS!

Starting a local high school, college, or graduate school CIVIC Student Chapter can be a fun and exciting way to educate yourself and others on the issues of immigration detention. When you start a CIVIC Student Chapter, you’ll have the chance to get to know people in your community and work with local organizations to educate and take action on immigration detention issues.

 

Check out this video created by students at City Arts and Technology High School in San Francisco:

  
HOW TO START A STUDENT CHAPTER

CIVIC hopes to pilot three student chapters in 2013.  These student chapters will be the founding members of the CIVIC Student Chapter Network!  We hope you will join us in shaping the national visitation network’s presence in your local community and in schools across the country!  Our affiliated visitation programs and staff organizers look forward to supporting you as you build and nurture your new student chapter.

 

Here are four steps that you can pursue on your own time, to begin organizing a student group:

1. Learn More. Set up an informal conversation with one of our Field Organizers or Area Coordinators to learn more. To get in contact with an Area Coordinator in your state, contact 385-212-4842 (385-21-CIVIC).

2. Organize a Core. Once you’ve decided starting a student chapter is for you, it’s time to tap into your network of friends, neighbors and fellow students to see who might be interested in learning more about CIVIC’s work and possibly joining your CIVIC Student Chapter. You can start by gathering about three to five people who will be the core of your local group.

3. Determine Your Activities. Together your core group will decide what aspects of CIVIC’s work you want to focus on and how your group plans to recruit new members! Some suggestions include:

• If you are over 18 years old, you might consider working with CIVIC to schedule a tour of a detention facility in your state.

• File public record requests and launch a Letter Writing Campaign to your senators and representatives to educate them about the issue of immigration detention in their home state.

• Create a film by interviewing people in your community about their thoughts around immigration detention.

• Help gather stories of families affected by the high cost of phone calls in immigration detention for CIVIC’s Phone Justice for Immigrants in Detention Campaign.

• Launch a CIVIC Pen Pal Program.

• Fundraise to end isolation!

• Invite speakers from local visitation programs or immigration rights groups to talk on your campus about immigration detention.

4. Get Chartered. Once your local group has a solid foundation of members and an activities plan, it will have the opportunity to get chartered for official CIVIC recognition. At this time, your group will receive a set of orientation materials to deepen and expand your activism and connect you more closely to CIVIC and our allies.

• Note that CIVIC Student Chapters are new and CIVIC is looking to partner with three pilot student groups to help design the orientation material for new groups!

FOR TEACHERS & PROFESSORS

For High School Teachers: Resources Coming Soon…

For University Professors: Resources Coming Soon…