CILA Shares Advocate Encouragement Cards

The Children’s Immigration Law Academy (CILA) is a capacity-building organization. We support advocates, including attorneys, legal staff, and social services staff, who work hard to help unaccompanied children in immigration proceedings. CILA builds capacity for those working to advance the rights of children seeking protection through trainings, technical assistance, resource development, and collaboration. CILA was created to help provide support and community for advocates. As the founding attorneys of CILA have described, this work is tough, and it is important to the organization and the CILA team, for you to know that we see you and hear you and know that this work can take a toll. It can simultaneously be challenging to the core, enlightening, purpose-driving, inspiring, fulfilling, and filled with stress and hope.

We encourage you to be the encouragement someone else needs! Let’s be a community for each other. Self-care is important always, and part of self-care is community care. Sometimes a word of encouragement can make all the difference, to be the light that someone else needs. CILA created a few cards that you can easily download as PDF files. You can either print the card out or email it to a colleague, friend, or mentor. Whether you seek to acknowledge the hard work a colleague is doing, celebrate a colleague’s victory, let someone in the field know that you admire their dedication and tenacity, thank someone who has been a support to you, or encourage someone who has worked through a difficult issue, we hope you will share a word of encouragement.

You can download the below e-cards with a pre-filled note or download the blank versions to include a custom note by hand or with a computer program. Cards can be printed and hand-delivered or mailed or downloaded and emailed.

Thank you for being a champion for immigrant youth working with courage, competency, compassion, and creativity!  Through what CILA does as an organization, we aim to support you. That is our mission and purpose. You are not alone in this work!

  • Technical Assistance: Ask CILA a question about a legal or social services issue.
  • Working Groups: Join us for a virtual working group meeting to hear updates on issues and learn from your colleagues. Get to know someone new in this community of advocates.
  • Resources: Check out CILA’s written resources on our website to continue to strengthen your advocacy skills.
  • Trainings: Learn the basics of immigration law and take a deeper dive by attending CILA trainings.

Reach out to the CILA team to let us know how we can support you in your advocacy efforts, and we look forward to seeing you around at CILA working group meetings and trainings or hearing from you for technical assistance requests!