PROGRAMS
¡Juntos hacemos la Fuerza!
Fuerza is the youth leadership committee of Juntos. Founded in 2011 by student leaders from South Philadelphia, committee members address issues of education, labor, and immigration from a youth perspective.
If you are a Latinx immigrant youth in Philadelphia and want to find out more, you can come to our weekly meetings on Wednesday afternoons at 4pm @ 600 Washington Ave (2nd floor of the Saigon Maxim Shopping Center).
For more information contact our Youth Coordinator at 215-218-9079 EXT. 3 or email her at guadalupe@vamosjuntos.org
Arts and Culture
Developing the agency of community members, youth leadership and cultural pride is a central element of Juntos' work in Philadelphia's Latinx immigrant community. Since 2012, Juntos has implemented an arts-integrated social justice practice to offer after-school workshops, arts-builds, and community celebrations to our larger community as part of our effective strategy to build critical awareness, resiliency, and expression. Over the last few years, participants have worked with local teaching artists to create socially minded art for local actions and rallies as a way to reflect lived experiences and resistance against problematic mainstream narratives, current events, and legislation. Through art, we engage community members to lead the conversation around issues of immigrant rights, criminal justice, and other issues of inequality.
Please contact our Executive Director Erika Guadalupe Nunez at lupita@vamosjuntos.org if you are interested in becoming involved or facilitating a arts-integrated workshop for Juntos.
Solidarity Bank
Juntos’ Solidarity Bank is a member-led initiative to get food and other resources to our underserved immigrant families in Philadelphia. Led by the incredible chingonas on our Women’s Leadership Committee and Jazaret, one of our three Fuerza Youth Ambassadors - we have built a relationship centered food and resource initiative that is informed by member experiences. Every Thursday from 12PM-2PM you can pick up food and diapers at our office located at 600 WASHINGTON AVE.
Community Resistance Zones
What is a “Community Resistance Zone”?
The idea of a Community Resistance Zone is to create an area where neighbors and community members know exactly what their rights are when it comes to ICE & police and to be able to defend their rights and their neighbors’ rights. Juntos’ Community Resistance Zone operates in the heart of South Philadelphia where a large portion of the city’s Latinx immigrant community lives.
Juntos’ first CRZ was launched in November of 2017 during a 2 day span. During this time over 200 volunteers came to South Philadelphia to learn their rights, to teach others, and to knock on doors to reach community and allies at their homes. In this 48 hour time period we:
Knocked on over 2,500 doors in South Philly
Trained over 1,300 people on their rights &
Signed up over 500 resistors
Every participant in our Community Resistance Zone made a personal commitment to stand up and defend their neighbors in South Philly against any and all abuses at the hands of police and/or ICE. They learned their rights. And we built history together by building a network of defenders.
We need each other more than ever now. Since the 2016 presidential election, we have seen a spike in deportations, police abuse, racial profiling, hate crimes, etc. This is not a coincidence. Our current power structure preaches violence and hate, and we must unite to fight back.
How to build your own Community Resistance Zone
This guide was written and designed by Juntos with the hope that other communities and allies will take our Resistance Zone Model and replicate it within their own neighborhoods.
Participants who use our Community Resistance Zone guide will learn how to facilitate their own series of workshops. The workshops are designed to teach individuals about their rights and about the history of immigration in this country, as well as how to recognize and utilize different levels of privilege that they may hold.
The workshops included in this guide are:
Criminalization History Workshop
How To Prepare a Workshop
Effective Group Listening
Building Power Through Storytelling
Community Resistance How-To’s
Understanding Our Rights & Privileges
How To Talk To People At The Door