Guiding Principles

Foster Cultures of Belonging: Educational settings are uniquely poised to facilitate belongingness and social inclusion, enhance intergroup conversations and interactions to counteract bias, racism and xenophobia.

Cultivate Understanding:  Fostering understanding of immigrant origin students by their teachers, others who serve them, AND their peers is essential for them to flourish and for greater inter-group understanding.

Promote Unifying Migration Narratives: Stories of migration offer a lens into our past, present, and future and is a shared human experience upon which to foster empathic and perspective taking capacities.

Take a Holistic Approach to Wellbeing: Cognitive, emotional, physical, and social wellbeing are fundamentally interrelated and interconnected.

Balance Both a Trauma-Informed AND Strength-Based Perspective: While many immigrant-origin youth have experienced an array of traumas and stresses, they are resilient and will flourish if provided opportunities to develop a sense of belonging and competency with nurturing supports.

Inform Culturally Responsive Practices: Practices are continually informed by and incorporate recognition, inclusiveness, assets, and respect which serve to engage and empower students.

Engender Empowerment: Educators are empowered to: 1-better serve their immigrant students and 2-foster intergroup communication in order to reduce xenophobia and racism.  Students are empowered to: 1-be prepared for a world on the move and 2-to become civic agents.

Stimulate Collaborative Engagements:  Collaboration with communities, high-impact educational and cultural institutions, and research is essential to our work and centers on listening, responding, and adapting to needs and context.