Fellowship
Boston Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement

Supervisor
Monique Tu Nguyen, Executive Director

Mentors
Carol Leon, Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants and Diana Serrano, NORC at the University of Chicago

Fellowship Description
The Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement is launching a comprehensive community needs assessment to gain insights that will guide strategic planning for initiatives aimed at better supporting and integrating the city’s nearly 200,000 immigrant population. This assessment will be grounded in community-based participatory action research principles, fostering active collaboration between municipal officials and immigrant community members throughout the research process.

Through approaches such as community meetings, focus groups, surveys, and participatory data analysis, immigrants will have a direct voice in identifying the key challenges, barriers, and priorities they face related to areas such as employment, education, health, civic engagement, and cultural integration. By centering the lived experiences and perspectives of immigrant stakeholders, this needs assessment seeks to produce findings that authentically reflect the community’s self-articulated needs to inform the development of equitable, culturally-responsive policies and programs.