The BorderLinks Story

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BorderLinks began providing educational seminars on U.S./Mexico border issues in 1987. Our early trips were focused on helping churches across the United States to understand the conflicts that were taking place in Central America and the difficulties encountered by Central American refugees who were fleeing the wars to come north.

By the early 1990's, our mission had broadened as we developed deeper relationships in Mexican border communities and tried to help our North American participants understand the implications of the global economy for residents in communities at risk along the U.S./Mexico border.

By experiencing first hand life in communities like Nogales, Sonora, our participants have been able to wrestle with the complexity of life on the border. As they met with workers and newly arrived migrants on the border, government and immigration enforcement officials on both sides of the border, and business people in the maquiladora sector, BorderLinks participants were challenged to reexamine their own assumptions and beliefs.

In 1998, BorderLinks realized it's long-term goal of becoming a bi-national program. Now recognized as a nonprofit corporation by both the U.S. and Mexican Governments, both our staff and Board of Directors have become bi-national. That has allowed us to dramatically expand our mission once again.

Raising awareness of
border issues and serving
border communities

Now, in addition to offering short-term and semester long immersion programs for North Americans, BorderLinks is also developing popular education seminars designed to help border residents in these borderlands communities to become leaders who work for community improvement.

Our border programs also include hands-on service projects in order to make a holistic and meaningful response to the overwhelming need that exists in these communities at risk.

Finally, BorderLinks has also begun to offer international conferences and workshops on the border to encourage Central Americans, Mexicans, and North Americans to work together to develop the relationships and the skills they will need to improve their communities in the global economy. Such programs will include leadership institutes, analysis of global and local community programs, and cross-cultural skill building.

All three of our program emphases,

(1) raising awareness among north Americans,
(2) developing projects to respond directly to community needs in the borderlands, and
(3) hosting international gatherings for analysis, skill-building and strategizing,

are efforts to live out our mission to offer high-quality educational events designed to encourage our participants to engage the world around them and to improve our communities.

In October of 2005 we began a new chapter. Having moved into our own campus in Tucson, AZ a year and a half earlier, we installed the Reverend Delle McCormick as only our second Executive Director in eighteen years. With Delle's arrival BorderLinks moves into the second generation of what looks to be a commitment for the long haul as we seek to surround the global economy with global community.

The full BorderLinks story is told in the book: BorderLinks II; Still On the Road, by Dr Jerry Gill. It is available from BorderLinks for $10 including shipping.