Congress is back. We have work to do. 

Dear Allies,

We hope everyone enjoyed a restful, restorative weekend. In today’s e-blast we are sharing resources to help you urge Congress to pass an immigrant-inclusive relief bill. We also have registration details for an upcoming webinar where the PIF Campaign will share our *NEW* Train-the-Trainer toolkit and best practices for training other advocates and community leaders on public charge. 

The Senate is returning to session this week and we need them to take immediate action to provide immigrant-inclusive COVID relief. PIF will be joining the Children Thrive Action Network in a day of action on Wednesday, September 9th to urge Congress to pass a COVID-19 relief bill which includes children in mixed-status immigrant families. This toolkit has everything you need to participate in this day of action, including sample social media content and further information on the issue.

The Network is also circulating an organization sign on letter to Congress on that same topic. National, state, and local organizations that serve, represent, or advocate on behalf of children and youth are invited to sign on via this Google Form by COB TODAY, Tuesday, September 8th. You can view the full text of the sign-on letter here.

Children Thrive Action Network is a new network of advocates and service providers at the national, state, and local levels who work directly with, or on behalf of children in immigrant families. The goal of the network is to center children in mixed-status immigrant families in advocacy around immigration policy guided by a comprehensive focus on healthy child development. 

On September 16 at 4pm ET/ 1pm PT,  join the PIF Campaign for an informative webinar to learn best practices in developing and running effective Train-the-Trainer programs. Train-the-Trainer (TTT) programs efficiently extend the reach of public charge educators and support efforts to spread the word to the millions of immigrant families potentially chilled by the public charge regulation. TTT programs also ensure that professionals in community-based settings are well-informed and well-prepared to support clients with public charge questions. Hear from expert TTT facilitators and see highlights of PIF’s new Train-the-Trainer toolkit so you can start a TTT program in your state or locality. Click here to register. 

The PIF Campaign now includes more than 500 partner organizations, including hundreds of organizations that work directly with immigrant families. Today we are sharing some great work from our partners in Florida and North Carolina. If you have examples of activities happening in your community, we’d love to hear from you. Please email Isobel Mohyeddin ([email protected]). 

• In Florida, our friends at WeCount! collaborated with their local NBC affiliate to lift up the experience of one of their members who recently contracted COVID-19. He's a undocumented day laborer from Honduras with U.S. citizen children who lost his job and his house after being diagnosed with COVID-19. Click here to see the clip. 

• In North Carolina, our friends at Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy have been hosting a series of Facebook Live events for community members during the pandemic. Last week, they held an event in Spanish with information on public charge which reached over 500 people. Click here to watch the recording. 

Thank you for your continued partnership!

Madison Allen (CLASP) & Eddie Carmona (NILC)

Visit us at https://protectingimmigrantfamilies.org/