BorderLinks Acuerdos

These acuerdos were created on January 23, 2021 by our staff and board. This is a living document, to be revisited periodically.

In developing and sharing our Organizational Acuerdos, BorderLinks wants to create room for people to better understand who we are. We honor the messy, beautiful process through which we arrived and commit to vulnerability and accountability. 

Even with our strong roots in justice, we were a historically white, institutional/academically-focused organization with barriers to participation. We’ve deliberately ungrounded some of these harmful barriers. We have become more represented by those most impacted within the Tucson community, in who we are and how we orient as a social movement organization. Some areas where we’ve made changes include adopting a shared leadership model, improving compensation, deepening mutual relationships with community partners, establishing a community fund, and more. There are still areas of growth and improvement. We commit to anti-oppression. We center those with lived experience. 

Acuerdos are our values in action; they are our agreements with each other and our wider community. 

Center Transformative, Popular Pedagogy

  • Believe in the transformational power of popular pedagogy.

  • Learn from and teach one another; each sharing our own ideas, wisdom & experience.

  • Be open to reflection. Be constantly unsettled; ruffling feathers is part of the process.

  • Cultivate consciousness of where power resides and settles. Education is not neutral. 

  • Invite and welcome radical curiosity, holding space for the messiness of revolutionary work. 

  • Hold radical acceptance and love for the fact that not everyone is where we are. We are on a journey together.

Act Through Accountability to Movements for Migrant Justice and Collective Liberation

  • Ground our work internally and externally towards collective liberation. Practice continuity between the means and the ends.

  • Practice radical hospitality, use humanizing language and respect each others’ identities.

  • Respect other people's experiences, stories, and boundaries.

  • Put sincere and honest reflection into our workplace and interpersonal decisions.

  • Honor our commitments and practice accountability. 

  • Celebrate when we or our movement partners experience successes and wellbeing either in the moment or in doing the value-driven work that will bring benefit.

Move At the Speed of Trust*

  • Look for ways to create, build, reestablish, and express trust through practicing our values in our day-to-day actions. It takes time to rebuild trust. 

  • Approach mistakes, failures, and conflict as opportunities for growth. Own our part of the problem, and make amends.

  • Commit to working on conflict transformation across the organization.

  • Be courageous with hard conversations.

  • Allow our vulnerability to be seen. Bring our whole selves to the space - successes and fears.

  • Let our work together be a source of renewal!

Communicate With Transparency

  • Communicate clearly, openly, and honestly.

  • Cultivate and nurture information loops that are transparent and inform our collective action, while upholding confidentiality where appropriate. Understanding our context and reasoning allows for more buy-in from all.

  • Give honest feedback and constructive reactions to keep issues from getting bigger than they should.

  • Engage with reflection and evaluative processes to hold us to account in our respective spheres.

  • Use tools of power wisely.

  • Operate with distinction between operations and governance. Continue to develop clarity around common understandings of roles and responsibilities.

Practice Self and Community Care in Relationships

  • Create sustained, meaningful, mutual relationships with community partners, program participants, donors, and volunteers.

  • Respect and support each other, both as individuals and for each person's contributions to our work together.

  • Remember that self and community care is more important than our productivity.

  • Show enthusiasm for each other's needs and passions outside work.

  • Try to be flexible with needs that arise as individuals and as an organization.

  • Do our best to bring helpful, positive, and grace-giving attitudes with each other and our work.

Grow Towards Collective, Horizontal Structures of Power 

  • Practice shared learning, shared decision-making and shared responsibility through our co-leadership model and throughout our organization. Understand power as collective.

  • Practice horizontal, non-hierarchical power structures such as seeking consensus in decisions, while recognizing some existing power dynamics can't just be switched off.

  • Create a space of freedom for staff to do their work.

  • Maintain consciousness of differences in lived experiences, including traumas. Pay attention to power dynamics and systems at play.

  • Embrace the value and responsibility of our Board beyond fundraising, as they generate various resources – financial, educational, etc., and give in a capacity that is personally significant.

  • Practice philanthropic diversity: Accept & value gifts at any level, treating all donations/ contributions with respect.

*The idea of "moving at the speed of trust" has been popularized by adrienne maree brown in their book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (2017).

Other sources of inspiration: 

Last Revised 2/25/2021