A network of associations,
and what it is for.
A registered nonprofit membership association, run by its members and the associations that charter with it. Here is exactly what we are and what we do.
Together and Stronger is a nonprofit membership association, formed to promote the common good and general welfare of people born abroad, whatever their status, US citizens born abroad, the US-born children of foreign-born parents, and their families, relatives and friends in the United States.
Forty-five million people in this country were born somewhere else. They work, pay taxes, raise children and send money home — and they routinely pay more than their neighbours for the same things. More for car insurance because a foreign licence reads as inexperience. More on every remittance, hidden in an exchange rate nobody prints on the receipt. More for a funeral eight thousand miles away, arranged in forty-eight hours by a family who has never done it before.
None of that is a market failure that fixes itself. It is the ordinary cost of arriving somewhere without the collective bargaining power that established communities take for granted.
Our purpose is to assemble that bargaining power and hand it back. Individually, a household has no leverage. Organised — across hometown associations, federations, congregations, unions and workplaces — the same households represent a market that carriers, merchants and service providers will negotiate with seriously.
That is the entire strategy: aggregate demand, negotiate on behalf of members, publish what we agree, and return the benefit to the people who created it.
No language is a barrier here. Our written material is in English, Spanish and French because that is where we started — not because those are the communities we serve. If you speak Arabic, Tagalog, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Amharic, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Yoruba, Bambara, Punjabi or anything else, write to us in it. We will find someone who speaks your language, and we translate our material on request. Every community is welcome, without exception.
- What we are
- A registered nonprofit membership association — TAS is short for Together and Stronger
- Membership
- $25 a year per adult, children under 18 free; individual and voluntary
- Serves
- Anyone with a foreign-born story: born abroad, US citizens born abroad, US-born children of foreign-born parents, and their families, relatives and friends
- Languages
- Written in English, Spanish and French — every language welcome, and we find someone who speaks yours
- How it is run
- By its members: chartered associations elect seats, every mutual aid case is published, and an annual report is made public
Four things, and we do not stray outside them.
Each one has a defined scope and a clear line where we stop and refer to someone licensed to go further.
We negotiate
Member rates on the things households actually spend money on — groceries, pharmacy, fuel, phone, flights home, money transfers, insurance written for our circumstances. We license our name to licensed providers and take a royalty. We never take a premium and never handle a claim.
We inform
Plain answers to the questions nobody answers, free to anyone whether they join or not. What your consulate will and will not pay for. Whether an ITIN holder may open a retirement account. What to do when wages are stolen. Information is the cheapest thing we can give and often the most valuable.
We connect
Community associations already hold the trust and the membership. What most lack is anything concrete to offer between meetings, and anywhere to turn when one family faces a cost no single club can carry. The Mutual Aid Compact connects them, on terms that leave every association entirely independent.
We advocate
On remittance transparency, consumer protection, wage enforcement and access to identification. Our legal form permits unlimited advocacy, and that is a principal reason we chose it. Priorities are set by members and association delegates, not decided for them.
Membership is open. Join today.