Services & Programs
Citizenship Support Program
Citizenship Application Preparation (CAP) Sessions are free services that allow those interested in applying for citizenship to receive assistance in filling out pre-registration forms and gathering needed documents and information. They are held at the AFIRE office for two weeks prior to a scheduled Citizenship Workshop.
The CitizenshipWorkshop is a monthly opportunity for eligible green card holders/permanent residents in the State of Illinois to meet with legal representatives and receive assistance in preparing for the citizenship interview process. The North Collaborative—AFIRE Chicago, Erie House, Palenque LSNA, Irish Community Services (ICS), Indo American Center (IAC), and Northern Illinois Justice for Our Neighbors (NIJFON)—coordinates the workshops, which ensure that applicants seeking naturalization are properly prepared for the citizenship interview process.
Organizing Program
AFIRE organizing is a strategy to intentionally create the conditions to learn, grow, build, and move towards a shared vision of liberation for immigrants, workers, domestic workers, queer and trans people, and oppressed peoples everywhere. It is characterized at AFIRE through our base-building and community engagement, mobilizing and solidarity, and actualizing community efforts.
Base-Building & Community Engagement
A cornerstone of AFIRE’s Organizing Program is base-building. Through base-building, we grow our base of leaders who move toward solutions and approaches that center justice, dismantle oppressive systems, and address issues facing a specific community. AFIRE’s base-building work features programs that engage distinctive aspects of the Filipinx/a/o* community through language learning, cultural practice, community education, and convening to raise issue awareness by way of panel discussions and performances.
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Tagalog 101 is a language learning opportunity that invites students into AFIRE's Commitment to Liberation framework, collectively creating the conditions to learn, grow, build, and move toward a shared vision of liberation for oppressed peoples everywhere. AFIRE Chicago's Tagalog 101 students have the opportunity to connect their own experiences as Filipinx/a/o-Americans in the Midwest to issues directly impacting Filipino immigrants in the U.S., such as the plight of immigration and culture of isolation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and domestic workers.
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The GoldenAgers program is a place for AFIRE’s elder members to gather around social, cultural, and political issues relevant to the community. GoldenAgers serves as a reminder that the spirit of leadership and the power to advocate for justice and liberation carries on even with age. The gift of reminiscence provides elders with inspiration and courage to sing, dance, move, and build along with our growing community!
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Seeding AFIRE is our community education space for community and AFIRE members to gather and engage in topics that inform and impact our work. Such topics include those related to immigration, domestic workers, and LGBTQ+ communities, as well as topics that detail and analyze how we address different issues. Community and AFIRE members engage with facilitators and learn and connect directly with one another. Most importantly, Seeding AFIRE is a space to reflect on personal connections to larger, oppressive systems, and critically assess our roles inside of them.
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The Great Baklaan is a community-driven, collaborative effort to reimagine opportunities that showcase the Filipinx/a/o LGBTQ+ community and raise awareness surrounding the issues we face. Issues may be presented through panel discussions, art-making, and performance, featuring the experiences and talents of Filipinx/a/o LGBTQ+ individuals and groups.
Mobilizing & Solidarity
AFIRE is honored to mobilize and build in solidarity with hundreds of partners in the community and fight for the rights of workers, immigrants, and queer and trans people in Illinois. AFIRE is currently a member of these coalitions:
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Dedicated to promoting the rights of immigrants and refugees to fully and equally participate in the civic, cultural, social, and political life of our diverse society
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Builds political power in the Asian American community of Illinois through civic advocacy and policy change
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Works to ensure that domestic workers are given the respect, dignity, and protection they deserve as equal members of our state’s workforce
Actualizing Community
The newest body of our Organizing Program creates space for the leaders in our community to grow their skills and confidence to dismantle oppressive thinking and forge a world in which our needs are met and we may all thrive and are free from oppression.
The name of this program comes from the notion of community actualization which is observed in the Siksika peoples of the Blackfoot Nation. Community actualization manifests thru supporting one another to ensure members of the community have their basic needs met. It requires connection, cooperativity, and a culture that embraces the wholeness and humanity of all of its community members.
*We use Filipinx/a/o as shorthand for Filipinx/Filipina/Filipino to honor all gender identities.
Mid-Year Report 2023–24
The Mid-Year Report is a reflection on the activities and milestones from July 1–December 31, 2023.