Immigrants and refugees are severely underrepresented at all levels of political decision‐making in the United States. These groups face significant barriers to civic and political participation and leadership, despite a frequent commitment to community care and engagement. There is an urgent need to address immigrant integration and underrepresentation through transformative means that go beyond voting to create a more inclusive and socially just society. We investigated outcomes associated with participation in an immigrant integration program designed to increase immigrants' access to civic engagement through a community‐based participatory research and action process that centered the voices, experiences, and wisdom of refugees and immigrants. Thirty immigrants and refugees representing at least eight different communities participated in semi‐structured interviews. Results illustrate how the program assisted in transforming participants' consciousness, skills, and relationships related to meaningful civic engagement and realizing their voice, power, and rights. These results emphasize the impact and potential of community based participatory research to transform individual and collective efficacy, consciousness, and capabilities—a vital first step in transformative justice.

Contemporary United States society is marked by exacerbated economic inequity and deep sociopolitical polarization, which increases a sense of precarity among marginalized communities. There is growing need to develop and foster practices that promote care and justice for marginalized communities. Organizational settings designed with the intent of supporting marginalized communities may possess unique knowledge related to actualizing care and promoting justice. Through analysis of ethnographic field notes and qualitative interviews conducted with 22 participants at the organization, this study examines organizational policies and practices of everyday decision-making at a drop-in center for women and gender non-conforming people in Washington State, USA. Findings document how policies and practices at the center promote care and justice for diverse marginalized groups. Implications for promoting equitable values in social settings more broadly are discussed.