Introducing Belonging Alliance Clubs: A Call to Educators and Students
When immigrant-origin students and their peers lead together—genuinely together, as equals—they create something more powerful than either group could build alone. Belonging Alliance Clubs bring both groups into shared leadership to diagnose belonging gaps, build understanding across difference, and take collective action to strengthen inclusion.
Why Alliance?
The Belonging Alliance Clubs model is built on solidarity, not charity. Immigrant-origin students and their peers don’t organize for one group to help the other—they organize together, as co-leaders with shared power.
- Immigrant-origin students bring lived experience, cultural wealth, and urgent clarity about what needs to change
- Their peers bring different forms of institutional access and commitment to solidarity
- Together they build understanding, diagnose problems, and take action neither could accomplish alone
Research shows this alliance model—where different groups lead together—creates more sustainable culture change than charity approaches where one group serves another.
Why This Matters Now
26% of U.S. school-age students have immigrant origins. In this political moment—with heightened anti-immigrant rhetoric, policy uncertainty, and questions about who “really belongs”—these students need more than well-meaning support. They need genuine allies who will share leadership, risk social capital, and work for change together.
And their peers need this too. Young people see injustice and want to act but often lack frameworks for solidarity that actually works. Alliance clubs teach what authentic partnership across difference looks like in practice.
What Alliance Clubs Do
Through shared leadership, immigrant-origin students and their peers:
Build Understanding Together:
- Cultural exchange that goes beyond food and festivals to real stories and experiences
- Facilitated dialogues where immigrant-origin students share and peers listen—then both groups process together what solidarity requires
- Education about immigration history, policy, and current reality that both groups co-lead
- Skill-building for alliance: how to show up, when to speak, when to listen, how to take action without centering yourself
Diagnose Problems Together:
- School culture audits identifying where belonging works and fails—using both groups’ different vantage points
- Community assessment of how the broader town or city functions for immigrant families
- Analysis of whose voices are heard, whose cultures are visible, whose languages have power
Take Action Together:
- Cultural affirmation events that immigrant-origin students design and peers help implement
- Advocacy for institutional changes (translation services, inclusive curriculum, welcoming protocols) where both groups leverage their different forms of influence
- Response to bias incidents or hostile political moments, planned and led by both groups
- Community partnerships supporting immigrant families, with shared responsibility
- Peer education teaching other students what alliance actually means
What We’re Learning
We’ve piloted with two schools taking different approaches to the alliance model:
- School A created a co-presidency structure (one immigrant-origin student, one peer ally) and focused on both cultural celebration AND policy advocacy around school translation services
- School B developed fluid leadership where different students led different initiatives based on their strengths, with immigrant-origin students leading storytelling events and all students co-leading community audit work
Both pilots teach us that shared leadership is possible—and powerful—but requires intentional structure. We’re now exploring with 5-10 more schools:
- What enables genuine shared leadership rather than one group dominating or deferring?
- How do clubs navigate power dynamics when immigrant-origin students face vulnerabilities their peers don’t?
- What happens when political events create urgency—who decides how the club responds?
- How do both groups stay engaged when one group’s identities are centered in the work?
- What structures support true alliance rather than reproducing helper/helped dynamics?
Who We’re Seeking
We need 5-10 school partners where:
- Both groups of students want to lead together: Immigrant-origin youth AND their peers are ready for genuine shared leadership, not one group leading and the other following
- Advisors can hold complexity: An adult who understands this isn’t just a “diversity club” but a model for solidarity, and can navigate power dynamics without controlling student direction
- Schools recognize why alliance matters: Administration understands that immigrant-origin students’ thriving isn’t separate from whole-school culture—it’s foundational to it
- Communities are ready for this model: People understand the difference between charity and solidarity, between helping and alliance
In These Times, Alliance Matters
When rhetoric divides, when policies threaten some and not others, when belonging feels conditional—young people need frameworks for solidarity that actually work. Belonging Alliance Clubs model what it looks like to lead together across difference, take collective action for justice, and build the inclusive communities we all need.
If you are interested in piloting/partnering…
What Re-Imagining Migration Provides:
- Aet of planning tools and facilitation guides
- Launch support and coaching
- Sample meeting templates and activity suggestions
- Connection to other pilot schools
- All resources are provided at no cost
What Your School Provides:
- Adult advisor (teacher, counselor, or staff member)
- Regular meeting space and time (during or after school)
- Administrative support for student-led club
- Student leaders committed to building belonging
Is your school positioned to provide these elements?
- Yes, we can provide all of these
- Yes, with some work to put pieces in place
- We have some pieces but would need to develop others
- We’re unsure about our capacity right now
Use this form to express interest.