Executive Leadership Transition in Damayan
We are excited to announce the transition of our Co-Founder and Executive Director, Linda Oalican in the first quarter of next year. After 20 years of organizing and leading Damayan, Linda will be leaving her role to create the opportunity for a new leader in the organization. This September, we will begin the search for a new Executive Director.
With Linda's leadership, Damayan received the prestigious Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award in 2015, recognizing Damayan’s accomplishments in fighting the labor and human trafficking of Filipino migrant workers. Today, we are proud to say that Damayan has become a sanctuary for trafficking survivors and their families--helping 69 survivors obtain humanitarian trafficking visas, helping reunite 33 survivor families, and bringing 67 children and 24 spouses to US soil.
Linda’s visionary leadership and tireless organizing is an inspiration and a model for us in the organization and the Filipino community. We look to Linda’s example as a Filipina domestic worker, who has transformed into a social justice leader, and who has dedicated her life to the fight for justice and dignity for exploited workers, especially Filipino women domestic workers.
“I am Linda Oalican, current Executive Director and Co-Founder of Damayan. With humility and resolve, I am happy to announce that I am transitioning out of the Executive Director role at the end of this year.
Two Decades of Impact
The year 2022 is the 20th Anniversary of Damayan. After two decades of significant shifts and realignment of Filipino organizations in New York City, I find peace and comfort that with my leadership, Damayan has remained steadfast in our anti-imperialist perspective; and has developed and articulated a clear vision, mission, Theory of Change, and strategies that have guided and grounded Damayan’s work, even during the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic.
During the last two decades, Damayan has developed and sustained core programs to serve and empower the local Filipino communities: Promoting workers' and immigrants’ rights; fighting labor and human trafficking; providing financial support and comprehensive case management to survivors; reunifying survivor families; and connecting all these service programs to the center of our organizing– base building and workers leadership development, primarily of trafficking and wage theft survivors.
The Covid-19 Era
I am incredibly proud of our accomplishments during the Covid-19 pandemic. When the pandemic happened in 2020, Damayan was forced to pivot to emergency humanitarian aid to save lives and keep hope in our communities. Risking their health and lives during the epicenter of the pandemic in Queens, our staff and organizers did not hesitate to do house-to-house deliveries and big in-person events, distribute hundreds of food packages and PPEs; and give out nearly $575,000 direct financial assistance to about 2,000 Covid-impacted Filipinos. I am pleased with our ability to provide immediate application assistance to over 200 Filipino excluded workers, enabling them to access over 3 million dollars from the NYS Excluded Workers Fund (EWF).
The brilliant organizing and courageous Covid-19 emergency humanitarian relief were envisioned and executed by our younger staff and organizers, who quickly shifted to using digital tools to outreach and mobilize our base to access the resources and services they deserve. The pandemic created the space and opportunity for these younger leaders to shine, to use their youthful energy, passion, and digital skills to save lives and keep a lifeline during the darkest days in NYC. I remain so proud of them.
Key Accomplishments
Today, Damayan is viewed by Filipino workers, especially the labor trafficking survivors, as a sanctuary. We celebrate every time we help a survivor break free and reunite her family! Several factors contribute to our accomplishments, and here are the highlights:
Analysis. Rooting and articulating Damayan’s unique role in organizing and empowering local Filipino migrant workers, particularly the women domestic workers, to end the Labor Export Program (LEP) of the Philippines; to fight forced migration and family separation; to combat labor trafficking & modern-day slavery.
The leading role of workers. Guided by our Theory of Change, we persevered in base building and developing workers' leadership. However, twenty years of organizing have taught us that only workers with strong political consciousness can step up to the historic role of becoming social justice leaders. It is not easy, but Damayan has accomplished this goal.
Providing direct services to advance solid organizing. We continue to provide rights-based direct services to bring us closer to the workers. We know that providing services is secondary between the two, sometimes competing, areas of work; and we are deliberate in prioritizing organizing.
“Baklas” (Break Free). I am proud that, to date, Damayan has helped 69 trafficking survivors win humanitarian T visas, and has reunited 33 families on US soil. Together, they brought 67 children and 24 spouses. In 2015, Damayan was awarded the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Award by the national Freedom Network USA for our accomplishments in the field.
Coalition work. Damayan is a small organization, and another strategy that helped us create impact is coalition work. We are grateful for our strong and long-term partners, including Citywide Immigrant Legal Empowerment Collaborative (CILEC); US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI); Coalition of American Children and Families (CACF); Asian American Federation (AAF); and the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). Our work across these coalitions has placed Damayan at the frontline of the anti-trafficking and domestic workers movement.
Strategic funding. We have almost doubled our staffing; next year, we can raise our organizational budget significantly. We cannot sustain our programs without the many years of funding support of funders aligned with our mission, goals, and strategies. We are grateful for the long-term support of North Star Fund, New York Foundation, Fund for New Citizens, New York Community Trust, Oak Foundation, Ford Foundation, New York Women Foundation, Nanum Foundation, and the NDWA, among others.
“I am confident that our organization, members, and stakeholders will be in good hands when I leave. ”
Change of Role, not Goodbye
The Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc in people's lives, and so are the global and local problems that oppress migrant Filipino workers. I have dedicated the prime years of my life to providing thought leadership to build this organization, and I am deeply honored for the opportunity to do this.
Reflecting on the extraordinary leadership and accomplishment of our staff and leaders during the pandemic brought me to this decision to create the space and opportunity for the new leaders of Damayan. I am confident that our organization, members, and stakeholders will be in good hands when I leave.
Succession Planning Committee
I am highly confident in our Succession Planning Committee, which consists of current and former Board leadership and key staff members. I am excited to see how the search for the new Executive Director will unfold under the supervision of the Committee, starting in August to November 2022. I look forward to helping the Committee onboard the new ED in December, positioning the new leader as a highly successful ED of Damayan. With Community Resource Exchange, our Transition Consultant, we are confident that we will reach our succession milestones with integrity and transparency to all of our stakeholders.
Again, I want to thank all those who have supported Damayan and me personally over the last 20 years. While I will no longer be a part of the staff, I will always be part of Damayan’s community of advocates!
The fight continues!”
Linda Oalican