News can be a source of emotional heaviness or joyful uplifting (and everything in between). As we begin another academic year at Refugee & Immigrant Transitions, we honor our memories. These memories center our communities' livability and embody the heart of RIT.

We are thrilled to announce RIT's Story Series!

By sharing stories from our volunteers, board members, clients, and staff, we hope to expand our collective understanding of migration, uplift our diverse experiences, and humanize one another.

At this divisive time, we disrupt dominant narratives that paint immigrants & refugees as one-dimensional victims or villains. Instead, we shed light on reasons why people migrate, nuances and diversities in their journeys, shared experiences, and kernels of wisdom. We hope to spark connections between us, break down barriers, and build shared communities for a more peaceful and just society.

The series begins with four individuals who came (or families came) to the U.S. many years ago and now are part of RIT’s beloved community. Be updated as new stories are shared! Follow RIT on Instagram (@r.i.transitions) or stay tuned on our RIT story series website.

Join us for a film screening: MAQUILÁPOLIS

At the Roxie Theater (SF Mission District) on Saturday, September 12th @3:45 pm.

This screening is a benefit for RIT. Ticket + Donation purchases support RIT!

The MAQUILÁPOLIS team and RIT share a vision:
We celebrate the power of community action, the importance of human agency, and our ability to create positive change for our futures, even in the face of all the forces working to enclose us in precarity, isolation, and invisibility and talks throughout 2026.

2006 marked the premiere of an innovative, impact-driven documentary that uplifted the work of women on the U.S.-Mexico border. These factory workers sustained a globalized economy that changed both nations and rapidly changed their lives. Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre’s groundbreaking film MAQUILÁPOLIS prioritized artful imagemaking and co-creative, community-based filmmaking. In the process, the promotoras whose stories are told in the film found new pathways for their activism and for telling their own stories.

Twenty years later, we are celebrating the legacy of MAQUILÁPOLIS with screenings and events.

Run or Walk For Immigrant Solidarity With RIT

RIT is participating in the Golden Gate Half Marathon and 5K on November 1st!

All fitness levels are welcome. Register HERE (you can create a fundraising page for RIT as you register) or Donate to a team member HERE.

We’d love to expand corporate team sponsorships!
If you/your company are interested in supporting RIT while also engaging your employees in this fun opportunity, please reach out to Development@reftrans.org.

Enormous gratitude to Plateful Health, Lumebox, Patriot Growth Insurance Services, and Rainbow Grocery Cooperative for their sponsorships this year! Thank you also to Nossaman LLP, our inaugural and continuing sponsor and Morling Financial Advisors who have signed up to sponsor employee teams this year!