Civic Engagement
Educating, facilitating, and encouraging civic participation in our community.
Kurds Count!
The census comes around once every ten years. It gives us a better idea of the demographics of the US population. In 2020, we led a campaign to inform Kurds about the importance of completing the census and specifying “Kurdish” under ethnicity due to a lack of a separate designation. This historic move will help us better understand the demographics of our community and ensure that our numbers and information are documented. It will enable our representatives and us to hear and serve our community better.
We had volunteers from all over the US participate in spreading the word. We are grateful to everyone who helped us in this campaign. We operated explicitly in at least 12 states. Projects to accomplish our goal included various informational videos, distributing flyers to businesses, town halls, webinars, op-eds, media interviews, essay contests, giveaways, mailings, newsletters, phone banking, text banking, and much more.
The time to submit information for the 2020 census is over, and we are currently waiting on the results.
Kurds Vote!
It is safe to say that 2020 was a big election year. Effendi Foundation prides itself on being non-partisan, but we show huge support for participating in one of the most important rights we have as Americans. Voting can give voice to a community previously unheard of and can give minority folks, like the Kurdish community, a seat at the US politics and government table.
With help from amazing volunteers, we did our best to register our fellow Kurdish community members all over the US to vote. However, more importantly, we started a conversation within our community about the importance of educating ourselves about US politics, our rights as Americans, and how the US government works.
However, the fight does not stop after Election Day. There are local and state elections happening in between election years. It is a continuous goal of ours to help register Kurds in our American communities to vote. We want to encourage them to vote not just in national elections but also in smaller elections in their states and cities. In states with large Kurdish populations, such as Tennessee and California, doing so will help strengthen Kurdish representation in local, state, and national politics and government.
Doing the Work.
Phone/Text Banking
We don’t just talk the talk.
We walk the walk.
Our volunteers had their work cut out for them while phone banking for our Kurds Vote! Campaign. We workshopped, trained, and banded together as we connected with our Kurdish community. Many of them were hearing about these issues for the first time since our community has largely been overlooked in such efforts. Encouraging voter registration and telling folks to make a plan for Election day was our goal.
We received an overwhelmingly positive response from our community, and we believe this method helps those who are not necessarily tech-savvy enough to get this information from digital sources.
Supporting Kurdish Businesses
We make it a point to promote our Kurdish businesses and business people.
In the past, we have partnered with Kurdish businesses such as Peshmerga, Mr. Erbil, Kurdish House London, Edessa Restaurant, Lala Candles, and more to educate our fellow Kurdish-Americans about entrepreneurship while also ensuring that our community can support them too. To teach new generations how to navigate the business world, we connected seasoned Kurdish businesspeople with beginners.
While conducting our campaigns, we partnered with Kurdish businesses whenever we could. Despite the generosity of these businesses, we tried to make sure that our relationship will enable them to give back to the community in a sustainable manner. We had a physical presence in some of these businesses to facilitate in-person conversations about these issues (per COVID health guidelines).
Scholarships and Internships
We are giving back to the community.
Making sure young Kurdish Americans have the means to go after their goals in life lifts our entire population to new heights.
Another way we want to give back to our community is by helping young professionals gain experience in the field. Doing so allows them to see the world of nonprofits, and it allows us to ensure the continuity of such work and spirit in the next generation of our Kurdish leaders. Besides offering many training sessions and scholarships, we also have an internship program. If there is no specific posting for the dates you are interested in, please contact us to discuss the potential opportunities.
Mailings and Newsletters
Communication is key.
We use various ways to reach our community to ensure that all preferences are met. We started with various social media tools. We also sent out the first-ever Kurdish mailings in the USA for our Kurds Count and Kurds Vote! Campaigns. In addition, email newsletters were sent out throughout the year. Our mailings were a more intimate avenue we used to share and spread information to our people in the US, and it proved to be very effective.
Keeping our members, volunteers, and interested parties informed about our activity, and future actions is essential. To stay in the loop, or if you are interested in teaching our community how to be more active citizens, click the button below.