- 15 hours ago
- 4 min read
This summer, Boston Women’s Fund announced over $475,000 in grants to organizations supporting women, girls, and gender-expansive individuals in Greater Boston. Among those awards were our 2025 Movement Building grants supporting three grassroots organizations led by BIPOC women advancing immigrant justice. With the leadership of our Allocations Committee, BWF awarded Matahari Women Workers Center, Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education, and Student Immigration Movement each with a one-year, unrestricted $25,000 Movement Building grant.
Through a participatory grantmaking process, our Allocations Committee came to consensus on these three organizations for their unique and intersectional approaches to immigrant justice and their action and advocacy addressing the current administration’s attacks on immigrant communities.
These organizations each touch upon a different subset of the larger immigrant community in Greater Boston. Read on to get to know our new Movement Building grantee partners’ vital work!
Matahari Women Workers Center
Matahari Women Workers Center is working to end the exploitation of women and femme workers through labor organizing of domestic workers (and restaurant workers since 2021). They have grown into the largest non-union community organization representing women workers in the domestic and service industries in Massachusetts. Founded in 2002 by women of color leaders, Matahari creates community solutions to end and prevent human trafficking, family violence, and sexual and labor exploitation. They recognize that addressing the root causes of violence against women of color requires a fundamental shift in power relations that can only be realized through community solutions, grassroots organizing, and collective action.
Matahari brings a crucial element of labor organizing into the immigrant justice movement. To them, immigrant justice requires a multifaceted intervention of the criminalization of undocumented people and the exploitation of labor for capitalist gain. Interrupting the system means stopping detention and deportation, AND interrupting the narrative around immigrants as criminals in Massachusetts and in the United States.
“Part of our fight is raising the floor for rights for everyone. It’s also a racial justice issue for us — most undocumented people are from countries that have suffered from US imperialism, occupation and/or exploitation and have been forced to migrate.” — Matahari Co-Directors
Matahari plays a critical role in a number of coalitions across the state, including the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts — known most for their multi-lingual I.C.E. Watch and Defense Hotline. Other key Matahari programs and approaches include rights training for domestic workers and deep leadership development on canvassing, organizing and advocacy, basebuilding and other skills to grow their community’s skills and power within the domestic workers movement. Learn more about Matahari Women Workers Center and support their work here.
Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education
The Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education (SPACE) was founded to address critical gaps in advocacy, education, and healthcare access for Somali immigrant and refugee families. What began in 2016 as a parent-led support group has grown into a vital community space in Roxbury, Massachusetts by 2019. Led entirely by Somali women with lived experiences of disability advocacy, SPACE focuses on eliminating language and cultural barriers that impede access to essential services for families.
To SPACE, immigrant justice is “systemic fairness, access to resources, access to justice, cultural competency, self-determination, independence, healthcare, education, [and] jobs” — just like disability justice. SPACE is actively trying to build community strength and work against biases/stigmas around gender, immigration, language, and being disabled and/or having children with disabilities.
SPACE advocates for families in the community by working with schools and healthcare institutions, conducting health literacy workshops for English language learners, destigmatizing mental illness and opening up the conversation about mental health through educational events and seminars, and other programs and events promoting Somali heritage and community connections. Learn more about Somali Parents Advocacy Center for Education and support their work here.
Student Immigration Movement
The Student Immigration Movement (SIM) is a youth-led, immigrant justice organization rooted in Greater Boston, with a growing presence across Massachusetts. Founded in the early 2000s by undocumented high school students in East Boston who refused to let their status be a barrier to education, SIM has since evolved into a multiracial, intersectional movement space focused on leadership development, base building, and strategic action.
SIM views leadership development, particularly among undocumented youth, as a transformative force in the immigrant justice movement. SIM’s role is to empower directly impacted individuals to lead, organize, and build collective power in the face of systemic marginalization.
“Our folks will always be the ones to save us.” — SIM Executive Director
SIM’s approach is multifaceted — blending direct support, political education, cultural organizing, and systems change. Their two main streams of work include community gatherings that center joy, healing, storytelling, and identity, and capacity-building programs that deepen political analysis and skills, such as power mapping and strategic planning. Learn more about the Student Immigration Movement and support their work here!
We are deeply honored to welcome these organizations to the BWF community and partner with them in the fight for immigrant justice and collective liberation!
