Strategy

Across our region, immigrant families contribute daily to the civic, economic, and spiritual life of their communities — yet many live with uncertainty shaped by a broken immigration system. West/Southwest IAF leaders begin with encounter: listening to lived experience and building the relationships that allow neighbors to respond with clarity, discipline, and purpose.

Recognizing the Stranger is a multi-year leadership development initiative launched in 2017 with support from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Rooted in faith traditions that affirm the dignity of every person, the program invests in immigrant leadership while strengthening bonds across language, culture, and status. Immigrant and non-immigrant leaders learn the skills of public life, the relational organizing, and civic engagement — building solidarity grounded in shared responsibility for the common good.

This work moves deliberately from reflection to action. Through disciplined listening, discernment, and public engagement, communities build the relational power needed to strengthen parish and neighborhood life and shape the broader civic culture. To date, more than 4,600 leaders from 370 parishes across 20 dioceses have been trained, growing a constituency committed to the safety, dignity, and full participation of immigrant families.

When communities organize across lines of difference, they make visible a democracy that honors the dignity that is our shared birthright.