What my internship taught me about nonprofit work

Adaiya Granberry

Sanctuary for Families Development Intern, Adaiya Grandberry, reflects on her time at Sanctuary as she prepares to head back to school.

My first college internship

Two months – more like two weeks. It’s setting in that my time at Sanctuary for Families has come to an end and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

As my first internship coming out of my freshman year of college, and one that was at a leading service providing nonprofit no less, I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. My immediate reaction upon arriving on my first day was ‘wow’.

‘Wow’, not only at my work, but ‘wow’ at the work Sanctuary for Families does as a whole — at the dedication of Sanctuary’s staff and at the way that the departments come together to make it all happen. From social work to legal representation to volunteer coordination to event planning (the list goes on), it amazed me how many programs function within Sanctuary for Families and how well-established each program is — all in the context of a nonprofit.

Sanctuary for Families challenged my perception of nonprofits

What do you think of when you think of a nonprofit?

Well, I imagined a small organization, with few staff. I imagined a small group of people, all focused on one central program. I imagined that small group of people, all more concerned with figuring out how they’ll make it to the next fiscal year rather than the needs of the clients they serve. I was wrong.

Sanctuary for Families is a nonprofit that has sustained itself. Money doesn’t come easy in the nonprofit world, but Sanctuary manages to dedicate 85 cents of every dollar raised towards its programs and to its community.

During my time at Sanctuary, I worked closely with the Institutional Giving and Communications teams. In learning about the grant-writing process, I gained greater insight into all the programs that really distinguish Sanctuary from other service providing organizations. As I began writing grant proposals myself, I began to better understand what Sanctuary is really about.

What Sanctuary for Families is really about

Sanctuary for Families creates a ‘sanctuary’ for clients by offering safe spaces to people from all backgrounds, races, sexual identities, abilities and religions. Sanctuary is about developing change-makers and empowering individuals in the community to determine their own lives. Sanctuary provides the tools, the people and the support system for clients to overcome whatever gender violence they’ve experienced.

Although much of what I’ve learned about is difficult to take in, it is also critical for me to understand. This experience will push me to question and evaluate how institutions claim to “serve” and create “social impact” in their communities. It has also pushed me to re-evaluate my life and goals.

What does this mean for my career and the path I choose? I have no idea.

But one thing that I am sure of is this: Sanctuary is genuinely and completely committed to its community and to its mission.

And I am so incredibly thankful for that.

An open letter to men: finding your fit in the feminist movement

Adaiya Granberry

Intern Adaiya Granberry asked men at Sanctuary how they strive to be allies and feminists.

Dear Feminist Men and Male-Identified Folks,

As a woman living in a country of systematic male supremacy and socialized male dominance, the feminist movement is relevant to me. When women’s inequality is sexualized, women’s pain is profited from, women’s bodies are dehumanized, and women’s lives are taken away, I get angry. That is my motivation for interning this summer at Sanctuary for Families.

Yet, as a developing feminist, I push myself to ask how I can involve myself in other movements that I don’t, at least on the surface, identify with. I recognize that the overarching systems of power perpetuate all of the inequalities within our society today, not just for women, but for the people of color, immigrants, the LGBTQIA community, and the poor.

Our struggles are, in my belief, inextricable because we are all the “othered.”

At Sanctuary, I am motivated everyday by the passion of those around me. This organization is dedicated to fighting against gender-based violence, and through that, fights against the institutionalized beliefs that women’s bodies are not their own.

I find it inspiring that the large majority of employees are women. We fight this fight because we live this life. We can easily relate to the experiences of our clients because we can see ourselves on the other side. We very well may have been on that side at another time in our lives.

But what about the men? And yes, they do exist at Sanctuary, but my question to these feminist men is, why? Why do you care? What motivates you? How do men involve themselves in a fight that may seemingly not affect them?

Who better to answer these questions than the men of Sanctuary themselves?

When considering how we can reshape power relationships in society, we cannot simply exclude men (no matter how much we want to.) “Men’s voices, unfortunately, are still necessary,” says Archil Sakhiashvili, an Administrative Associate in our Clinical Department.

I have to agree with Archil. In any social justice fight, the truth is that we need allies and we can’t do it by ourselves.

As an ally, it is crucial to know your role—know your boundaries, know your place, and don’t violate that line. As Mark Yrigoyen, the Director of DVIEP, says, a man’s role is “to listen for ways to assist.”

Men, as allies in this fight, you must do your part by first understanding what is needed from you. If you jump to conclusions about what needs to be done, you are taking up space and exercising your own male privilege. “It’s not a crusade, but an everyday thing,” Mark continues.

Kyle Dandelet, a Senior Staff Attorney in our Immigration Intervention Project, says men must do their part by “try[ing] to influence other men’s actions and expectations within their own spheres.” A key role men can play is leading conversation and introducing issues of gender violence into male-dominated spaces.

In these arenas, feminist men, it is your job, as an ally to women, to be an advocate. This is where you can, and should, exploit your space of privilege to take a stand against gender violence. We need men to take the opportunities to speak up where women cannot.

Lastly, I spoke with one of my supervisors, John Wyeth, the Director of Institutional Giving. “Men and boys must be self-reflective and conscious of the ways [we] act,” says John. Some may be “perpetuating abusive behavior” and this “becomes normalized and the fabric of [our] community.”

Men need to educate themselves. Men need to be cognizant of their own acts of violence and teach their sons and nephews and grandchildren the same. Men need to listen to women’s needs, and follow suit, because in this fight, our voices, thoughts, and ideas come first.

Men, you must understand why women are fighting gender violence, inform yourself about the too commonly shared experiences of women, and bring our words to the forums only you have access to—because as John says, “domestic violence and gender violence are not just women’s issues…they absolutely affect all of us.”

Yours Truly,
Adaiya

Adaiya Granberry is a summer intern at Sanctuary for Families. She comes to Sanctuary through Duke University’s Moxie Project. 

The Supreme Court ruling is a blow for immigrant victims of gender violence

Michael Shannon

This is a heartbreaking decision for over 5 million undocumented immigrant.

This is a heartbreaking decision for over 5 million undocumented immigrants, including many of our own clients here at Sanctuary for Families.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court announced a 4-4 ruling in U.S. v. Texas, the case deciding whether President Obama’s 2014 executive action immigration relief programs can go into effect.

This decision holds deep repercussions for many of Sanctuary for Families’ clients, for survivors of gender violence seeking safety and freedom in the US, and for immigrants and their families throughout our country.

As a result of the tie, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and the expansion of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA+) programs will not be implemented. These programs were a lifeline for many of the clients we serve every day.

This is a heartbreaking decision, especially for the roughly 5 million undocumented immigrants who were eligible for these programs. It is equally heartbreaking for their family members, including their U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident children, who are directly impacted by their parents’ ability to work legally and live without fear of deportation.

But mostly, this is a very sad day for all immigrant parents who have been in this country for years raising the next generation of US citizens.

Every single day, we meet them in our offices and see first-hand how their lack of work authorization and lawful status affect their families’ emotional and economic health, having a lasting impact on their families, their communities, and our country as a whole.

Despite today’s disappointing decision, we will continue fighting for the rights of all non-citizen survivors of domestic violence, gender based violence, and trafficking, as well as for the rights of all immigrants.

Today’s result brings with it many opportunities to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform that will benefit our clients, their families, and our shared communities. One of these opportunities, which we encourage you to attend, is a rally organized by the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) on Tuesday, June 28th at 6pm at Foley Square.

In the coming days and weeks, we expect more mobilizations and advocacy efforts, both here in New York City, as well as nationally, so please follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and check back here to stay tuned.

Michael Shannon is an attorney and Immigrant Justice Corps Fellow with Sanctuary’s Immigration Intervention Project.

The dangerous game of immigration judge roulette.

Carmen Rey

When justice is subject to the whims of one immigration judge, immigrant families face dangerous consequences.

Carmen Rey, Deputy Director of Sanctuary’s Immigration Intervention Project spent last week in Texas providing legal service support to detained mothers and children at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, which houses up to 2,400 detained immigrant families.
This is Carmen’s second post about her experiences in Dilley. Read part one.

It’s the toss of a coin. Heads up, you stay, heads down, you get deported. The circumstances that affect the toss range from judicial quality to the immigration judge’s mood.

Asylum grant rates for immigration judges range from 7% to 96% across the United States, depending upon the judge. As cases are randomly distributed amongst judges, it is hard to explain why some judges grant nearly all the asylum cases before them, while others effectively grant none.

With all immigration courts being overcrowded, those of us practicing in immigration court know that the persecution that leads an asylum-seeker to seek refuge in the United States, and the actual danger they face in their home country, may have little effect upon the outcome of their cases. And so it seems to those of us in the trenches that sometimes justice is reduced to little more than immigration judge roulette.

This is particularly true for the thousands of women and children detained along the southern border.

And yet, knowing all of this, today still came as a surprise. I was barely settled into Court when the judge told me that she reviewed the evidence on my first two scheduled cases and was going to grant both. She indeed proceeded to grant the first.

She then called the second client into the courtroom, swore her in under oath, and told her that she was going to grant her case, because she had a “very strong case.” And then fate intervened.

The satellite connection between our courtroom in the detention facility and the Miami courtroom where the Judge was holding the hearing by videoconference disconnected, apparently because of thunderstorms sweeping through Texas and Florida. The Judge granted us a 1 hour recess and told the client to go to lunch.

My client went to lunch, ecstatic that she would not have to return to the country where she and her young son had lived under daily risk of death. As ordered, she returned to the courtroom promptly at 12 PM, where we reconnected with the Miami courtroom, and the Judge went back on the record.

Same Judge, one hour later. Except this time, the Judge opened by saying that my client’s case is very weak, and that she just cannot bring herself to grant it. When I try to explain that this is the same case we had been in the midst of only an hour earlier, the Judge exclaims that I am wrong, that she has never heard the facts of this case and has never seen my client.

Meanwhile, my client crumbles beside me; ten minutes ago she thought she was free and safe, and now the Judge is telling her that she may be deported to her home country.

As my client starts involuntarily shaking, the Judge proceeds with a line of questioning along the lines of: “Yes, I know that your uncle was killed, I know that your neighborhood has been set aflame, that even the military of your country is too afraid of the violence in your hometown to enter it, and yes, I also know that your family has been specifically targeted by the same people that killed your uncle. But that’s just not the point.”

With every question she is asked, my client shakes more violently.

I try to intercede, but the Judge curtly interrupts: “Ms. Rey, if you don’t shut up, I will conduct this hearing without you.” So I stop talking, because I can’t fathom leaving my client to face the Judge on her own. My silence does little to change the proceeding as the Judge continues to berate my client, until the satellite disconnects again.

Over the next 30 minutes, under the watchful eye of the Court Officer, who is there to ensure that I do not speak to my client while awaiting continuing questioning from the Judge, I hold my client’s hand and rub her back, as she continues to shake and cry in small wet sobs.

We wait and wait for the satellite to reconnect with no luck, until, half an hour later, the Court Officer loudly exclaims: “Boy, y’all are lucky today: the Judge has a doctor’s appointment. She’s too busy to deal with this so she’s granted your case and the other two cases this afternoon.”

So my client was saved from deportation by a Judge’s doctor’s appointment. This is justice for thousands of detained immigrant women and child refugees on our southern border. Welcome to America.

Photo caption: artwork made for Carmen by a young client in detention.