Dotting the length of the U.S.-Mexico border – from San Diego/Tijuana to Brownsville (Texas)/Matamoros – are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) addressing community challenges and embracing opportunities to improve the region.
Many of the groups are familiar to Andy Carey, executive director of the U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership (BPP).
“We are often bombarded with negative stories and images in the border region, so our commitment is to tell a different story and to help our members do a better job of telling their stories,” Carey said.
When BPP was created in 2002, its funding came from a donor collaborative of nine foundations including the Annie E. Casey, Ford, Inter-American, W.K. Kellogg and Mott foundations.
BPP began as a project of the Synergos Institute but is now independent. Its overall goal is to expand philanthropy in the region, and use its funds to improve life for border residents. To date, Mott has provided $412,000 to support BPP’s work.
New members – in the U.S. and Fundacion del Empresariado Chihuahunse (FECHAC) in Mexico – have broadened BPP’s base of support, enabling the organization to help develop binational philanthropic partnerships. Together with its member organizations, BPP has leveraged more than $20 million from local, national and international sources to support community programs and strengthen institutions based in the border region, Carey said.
By supporting local organizations, he says, BPP is also strengthening community leaders who raise funds to address “more robust areas of need” in their communities.
As BPP’s leader, Carey keeps busy building the organization’s membership, which has expanded from 18 members – all of which were community foundations and other philanthropic institutions – when he arrived in 2008 to 45 today. Members now include private, public and family foundations; U.S. and Mexican representation from local, state and national governments; NGOs serving border communities; academic institutions; individuals; and corporations.
“The vision we cast for BPP is that the membership really will be representative of all civil society,” Carey said, “because it is going to take all of us working together to truly transform life in the U.S./Mexico border region.”
Most recently, the region has been in the media spotlight of both countries after Arizona’s Governor signed into law a controversial immigration enforcement bill in late April 2010. But for the past few years the media has continually reported on the region’s struggles with high rates of violence, illegal drugs, poverty, unemployment, foreclosure rates and health risks – all of which have worsened during the current global economic crisis.
It is unusual for media members to highlight what local NGOs are doing to address these and other challenges, Carey says.
The area includes four states in the U.S. – California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas – and six in Mexico – Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leno and Tamaulipas. The region is important – economically and politically – not only to residents of border states but also to those living in the interior of Mexico and the U.S., he says.
“It is a huge source of transnational life, bilateral relations and commerce between two nations.”
Consequently, BPP offers data, research and general information about the daily realities of border life. One recent example is the San Diego-based organization’s study, Debunking Myths: The U.S.-Mexico Border Philanthropy Partnership’s Quality of Life Indicators Project.
Conducted by top academic researchers who work in border states and released in fall 2009, the report was the first installment of a multiyear research initiative that aims to provide a data-driven analysis of quality of life in the region. The study was funded by BPP’s supporters and the Southwest Consortium for Environmental Research and Policy as part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s work in the region.
Using data collected over several years, the report explores common myths and paints a more accurate picture of the border region from a binational, civil society perspective, Carey says.
For example, one myth is that border communities are primarily populated with undocumented immigrants eager to cross the border into the U.S. Yet, resident surveys found the average stay in the area ranges from 15.3 years in the San Luis/Somerton area (Yuma County, Arizona) to 30.3 years in Mexicali (capital of Baja California).
The study also dispelled a myth about the entire border region being an inhospitable place to live, Carey says. When residents were asked to rate how satisfied they were with living in their specific locations, the average ranking was between 6.9 and 8.0 on a 9.0 scale.
One of those who sees positive things happening in the area in which she lives is Maria Auxiliadora Quinones. She has experienced firsthand how the work of NGOs is improving the quality of life for families in Sonora, Mexico.
As the mother of two daughters, one of whom has Down syndrome, Quinones volunteers with the Association of Mothers of Children with Down syndrome. The grassroots group provides direct services for children with the genetic condition, advocates for educational opportunities for them and offers support services to families.
Through the association, Quinones was invited to participate in a daylong NGO training session sponsored by a BPP member, the Fundación Empresariado Sonorense A.C. (a foundation of business and industry leaders from the state of Sonora). Presenters discussed management styles, communication skills and team-building exercises.
For Quinones, it was beneficial to interact with, and learn from, NGO leaders from larger and more established organizations than her own. But she said it also was valuable to simply look around the room to see the variety of NGOs represented.
“One of the most important things I learned was that quality of life is a shared thing in communities,” Quinones said. “It is everyone’s responsibility to participate in our communities to make things better.”
Carey shares her desire to encourage as many people as possible to help improve their communities, particularly those in the border region – something Carey was doing long before he joined BPP two years ago. Previously, he served 15 years at Kiwanis International, a global service club. Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish and English, he was responsible for growth and development initiatives in the Americas, in addition to Africa, Asia, Europe and the South Pacific.
Carey’s work also included mobilizing volunteers and developing fundraising strategies, especially in the U.S.-Mexico border region. He was pleased to discover that BPP’s work allows him to interact with people he had known from his Kiwanian days.
While seeing familiar faces is heartwarming, Carey says, meeting new people who are working to improve the region is equally as satisfying. Most recently, these fresh faces have included those from the Frontera Asset Building Network (FABN), one of BPP’s newest members. The network includes about 80 leaders representing 50 organizations that help families living along the southwest border of the U.S. increase their income and build assets – such as buying a house, getting an education or starting a business.
These organizations, along with many long-standing BPP member organizations, use Family Economic Success programs to help families and communities increase their resiliency to economic changes so they can get ahead. These programs include earned income tax credits and individual development accounts (IDAs); the latter provide savings account matches as incentives to low-income families so they can acquire major assets.
These shared priorities make the FABN an organization that complements BPP’s work, Carey says.
“FABN’s membership is a huge sign of support for the work we are doing to strengthen the capacity of organizations working in the border region.” he said.
As prevalent as poverty is, it is not the only serious issue facing border residents. Security, as international headlines have shown, is another, Carey says.
When the U.S. Department of Homeland Security suggested a listening tour through the border region – a series of meetings for leaders to hear local concerns – BPP was instrumental in helping ensure there were diverse voices. Carey says the talks would not have been as effective if the group was made up of only the law enforcement community, local government and border patrol employees.
“BPP was able to bring people from the diplomatic core, people from the academic institutions, people from the not-for-profits, as well as leading business leaders,” he said. “Homeland Security saw that we need to be a partner of theirs because we can bring in the people – either because we know them personally or because our members know them.”
Carey paused, then added: “We were able to deliver and, hopefully, Homeland Security and others are now seeing BPP and its members as part of the answer for the border region.”
Article reprinted with permission from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. The article originally appeared on the Mott Foundation site.