Council On American-Islamic Relations - Ohio

CAIR-Ohio's Immigrant and New American Education addresses the limited access to resources as well as language and cultural barriers that make it difficult to integrate into life as a new American or immigrant. We are dedicated to helping the Ohio immigrant community through multilingual educational programming and legal immigration assistance. We provide information on accommodations in employment, educational, and healthcare settings through workshops, tabling at community centers, and distributing comprehensive guidebooks. Through our work with community partners, we also conduct “Know Your Rights” workshops for new Americans and immigrants, which cover tenant rights, consumer rights, employment rights, constitutional rights, and rights when interacting with law enforcement.

CAIR-Ohio advocates for Muslims and other marginalized groups in the local, state, and federal halls of power and directly in communities. Our civic engagement and advocacy efforts include various programs throughout the year to facilitate opportunities in which Ohio Muslims can engage with elected officials and advocate for legislation that aims to preserve and expand voting rights, strengthen our political system for marginalized communities, protect civil liberties, and promote social justice. We also have a robust non-partisan voter mobilization program with voter registration drives, voter guides, candidate forums, phone banking events, and get out the vote events. As part of this, we provide education on voter ID laws, early voting opportunities, and changes to the voting process.

Our Youth Empowerment Program includes the Muslim Youth Leadership Program (MYLP) and our six-week in-person summer internship program. MYLP is a multi-day educational and leadership-building experience designed to equip minority youth with the necessary skills in organizing projects and campaigns that empower their communities. Program participants explore careers in government, activism, advocacy, and politics; gain an understanding of our political ecosystem; learn to apply changes to and through activism; and build skills in campaigning, organizing, and leading. CAIR-Ohio's six-week summer internship program gives a cohort of undergraduate and high school students the opportunity to work on organizational projects both independently and collaboratively to gain important skills, community connections, and work experience to help advance their future academic and professional endeavors. It includes an educational curriculum focused on communication skills, advocacy, media relations, legal work, and nonprofit management.

We also empower our youth to help with voter engagement programs, including voter registration and phone banking. In addition, we conduct “Know Your Rights” workshops for youth organizations to educate them on issues relating to civic engagement, political empowerment, and legal rights. CAIR-Ohio's Civic Engagement and Advocacy programs ensure our direct advocacy with elected representatives involves not only training members of the youth on direct advocacy but also including youth in our meetings with elected representatives.