DigiActive.org

Campaign: DreamActivist Making “Dream” Reality

Description: What happens when an immigrant child who comes to the United States as a minor without documents graduates high school, but doesn’t have the papers to go to college or get a job?

These students, many of whom graduate at the top of their class or as star athletes with promising futures as teachers, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs, and public servants, end up living in the shadows for no fault of their own. Getting a job or continuing on to higher education through legal channels becomes a mere fleeting dream. But the DREAM Act (S.729 / H.R. 1751) aims to make that dream a reality.

The federal act would provide undocumented immigrant students with conditional residency and a pathway to citizenship, provided that they came to the United States before the age of 16, maintained continuous residency for five years, graduate high school and have no criminal record.  The U.S. Senate rejected an attempt to discuss the DREAM Act in 2007, however, it is on the docket again, and this time with the help of web-based technology.  That’s where groups like DreamActivist step in.

Digital Tools Being Used: Blog, Video, Facebook

What Are They Doing: The aim of DreamActivist is to garner the support Congress needs to see in order to pass the DREAM Act. “DreamActivist is like the Watchtower of United We DREAM,” says Prerna, Co-administrator and Co-founder of the organization. “Through our online work we try to make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing, disseminate information, our students and allies are ‘in the loop’ through various channels, and we work to change the discourse of the immigration debate.”

Mo, another DreanActivist administrator and founder, says that his work online “never ends.”  With the all of the outlets on which DreamActivist has a presence, it’s easy to see how that’s the case. But the small group of community organizers is doing a good job staying on top of it all and making a difference.

Just what are they doing? Here are some highlights from their campaign so far:

“Facebook – Change.org campaign for ‘Ideas for Change in America’ – Students effectively spammed their various networks; used free facebook ads. It is fascinating to see your own message being forwarded to you within minutes by someone you do not even know! The DREAM Act came in #8 with 12,008 votes and mobilized a lot of students. The campaign also helped us rise as a network.”

The 24,000 (and growing) supporters for the DREAM Act cause can also receive and act on 3 action alerts per week.

Chip-in – Raised about $US 1,800 in a month. Widgetizing is a major help. We also found out that people want to help and contribute.

The Sanctuary group and undocumented bloggers (our blogroll) have been an immense help in getting the word out online through various channels.

Private Google Groups (UWD Coalition) – Particularly effective in breaking news stories, getting info on new co-sponsors and supporters.” -Prerna

Not only has DreamActivist organized an online petition to show the support for the DreamAct, but they have also used the mailing list from that petition to help organize for events on the ground—most notably the recent May Day March.

Other digital and social networking avenues that have been useful for internal organizing are Google Docs and Scribe for publications and target lists. In addition, reddit.com has been used for bookmarking and cataloging important immigration-related news.

DreamActivist has also been able to integrate their web-based campaign with more traditional media such as Spanish language TV and radio stations. Prerna describes one particular effort: “a month ago Matias from DC and Isabel from Virginia went on Spanish language radio in Sacramento and give out a toll-free number that rings at my home in the Bay Area, California, with a message that is automatically routed to New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Massachusetts (and sometimes Guatemala), Texas, and Indiana. Now most of these calls were in Spanish so I had to scramble around and find someone in our network from Los Angeles to borrow a cellphone with unlimited minutes, and while being on webcam support with the ‘call-center’ in the Bay Area, and call back the people from Washington, Iowa, Illinois, Utah, Virginia and Arizona. It was quite a fun week. We now have a bi-lingual voice message on our toll-free line. Eventually, we have come to use a Google Doc to share our hotline call notes and know whether someone needs to call back and who needs to do it.”

Impact: From big campaign support on Facebook to little things like Google Docs to help coordinate the movement across a nation, DreamActivist has utilized technology to make the campaign efficient. The team at DreamActivist is nimble and adaptable. They are always on the lookout for new ways to help get the Dream Act passed.   In the meantime, they are hopeful about their efforts.