Our History
The Pan Valley Institute (PVI) was founded in 1998 as a program of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to strengthen the leadership capacity and foster the civic engagement of immigrants in California’s diverse Central Valley.
Over the past 26 years, PVI’s work has responded to the Valley’s evolving demographic landscape, such as the arrival of ethnically and linguistically diverse indigenous migrants from Mexico and Central America, Hmong and Cambodian refugees from Southeast Asia, and more recently, refugee families arriving from Iraq, Palestine, Syria, and Iran. PVI’s work is well-known for its cross-generational approaches, emphasizing women, youth, and Indigenous populations.
Who We Are
PVI is an immigrant-led, popular education organization based in Fresno, California. It emphasizes women, youth, and Indigenous populations and expands its cross-generational work to other counties in the San Joaquin Valley, including Tulare, Merced, and Madera. We foster active citizenship and offer intergenerational learning spaces for immigrants and refugees to realize their possibilities of becoming social actors of change.
We build spaces where immigrants and refugees can learn from each other, develop a sense of belonging, reclaim their cultural rights, and prepare to create caring and
culturally vibrant communities. The work is guided by principles of popular education, cultural, exchange, participatory action research, and decolonial pedagogy.
VISION
We dream that in California’s Central Valley, all people are respected, cultural diversity is valued, and communities live in a socially, racially, and economically just world.
MISSION
PVI provides spaces where immigrants and refugees feel safe and welcome, learn from each other, reclaim their cultural rights, and build a sense of belonging and power for social change.
One Conversation in Many Languages
Una Conversación en Varias Lenguas
Ib qho Kev Sib Tham Muaj Ntau Yam Lus
محادثة واحدة بلغات متعددة
多くの言語での1つの会
Our goals for making an impact
At PVI, we are committed to spending the next 10 years creating a Central Valley…
- In which immigrants, refugees, and other disenfranchised communities have a seat and a voice at the table where political decisions regarding their lives are made.
- Where exclusion and racism are replaced by a culture that respects and values cultural and ethnic diversity, and immigrants’ and refugees’ contributions;
- That is not solely driven by agri-business, and that provides opportunities for economic security for all.
As an organization, our goals are to…
- Create a safe and welcoming cross-cultural popular education and participatory research learning center;
- Affirm and strengthen solidarity networks, partnerships, and friendships;
- Ensure PVI’s financial stability
