For 20 years, Upwardly Global has supported immigrants and refugees eager to contribute their skills to America.
Our efforts are grounded in two certainties:
- The incredible ability of immigrants to rebuild their lives in the face of adversity and their unwavering desire to share their talents and energy in their new home, and;
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The prosperity we create together when we tap into the human potential of everyone, including immigrants.
This coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated once again how deeply we depend on each other. And immigrants, including our own UpGlo family, are at the front lines as healthcare workers, logistics engineers, and in crucial businesses that we depend on.
As we move forward, we would be blind to overlook immigrant contributions, and foolish to underestimate immigrant potential in a recovery that will take all the grit, resilience, and innovation that we can muster as a country.
If we manage this crisis as one inclusive country, it will make us stronger. If not, we will tear at the very roots of our society, and all of us will suffer.
It’s personal for me. I’m the child of immigrants, and it remains a deep part of my identity. My mother came here from India and worked three jobs to make ends meet. She was doing it for her children, yes, but she was also contributing to our community. Today, my three siblings are doctors and a nurse, serving in this crisis, and I’m privileged to help other immigrants and refugees like my family as they seek to serve.
The best America does not believe in zero sum – that some belong at the expense of others. The best America is deeply aware that we rise -or fall – based on our collective strength.
During COVID-19, Upwardly Global is doubling down on our support for moving immigrants and refugees out of poverty and focusing on areas where there is great need, including our overburdened healthcare system. Hundreds of UpGlo job seekers – and tens of thousands of internationally-trained healthcare workers across the country – are eager to serve in this crisis. We help each other by helping them.
At Upwardly Global, we are experts in helping people find careers that fit their training. We helped 1,000 people last year alone to land a job, through coaching, skills-building, and professional connections. Today, we are lending our digital tools to all Americans out of work at this moment, immigrant or born here. We are making our digital tools free to workforce partners and individuals. Because all of us need to stand together now more than ever. Doing so is key to the inclusive recovery that we need.
And starting on May 1, we are launching the campaign, Support Immigrants. Together. We will ask each of you to lend your voice, and expand the support we need as a country to stand together.
Jina Krause-Vilmar
President & CEO, Upwardly Global