Immigrant voting is a cornerstone of a multiracial democracy.

In 2016, San Francisco voters passed a ballot measure approving a charter amendment which gave qualifying non citizens the right to vote in school board elections. The Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative (IPVC), a group of eight community-based organizations from immigrant rights, education equity, and civic engagement backgrounds, formed in 2018 to support the implementation of this new voting right.

The Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative (IPVC)

The Immigrant Parent Voting Collaborative (IPVC) engages immigrant, limited-English proficient parents, who have traditionally been side-lined by systemic barriers to levers of power, to have direct access to decision making power as it relates to their child(ren)s education. With capacity for over 10 languages, IPVC conducts in-language outreach, and hosts events, to reach hard-to-reach communities, and works with city stakeholders to ensure onramps to civic engagement opportunities are accessible to limited-English proficient immigrant parents of all statuses in San Francisco.

IPVC Partners

The impacts noncitizen voting has on immigrant empowerment are tremendous.

We’ve written a report that explores the fight for immigrant voting rights, the positive effects on parent participation, and the gains that can still be made to protect this crucial piece of civic engagement.