USCIS Announces Fiscal Year 2012
Citizenship and Integration Grant Program Recipients

Introduction

On Sept. 17, 2012, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the award of approximately $5 million in grants designed to promote immigrant civic integration and prepare permanent residents for citizenship. Under this program, 31 immigrant-serving organizations from 21 states and the District of Columbia will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for permanent residents through September 2014.

Background

This is the fourth year USCIS has awarded competitive grant funding to immigrant-serving organizations to support citizenship preparation efforts. During the first three years of the program, USCIS awarded a total of $18.3 million through 111 grants to immigrant-serving organizations. To date, these organizations have provided citizenship preparation services to approximately 38,000 permanent residents in 30 states and the District of Columbia. USCIS anticipates an additional 26,000 permanent residents will receive citizenship preparation services by September 2014.[1]

Under this year’s program, grant recipients will offer citizenship instruction to prepare permanent residents for the civics and English components of the naturalization test, and naturalization application services within the scope of the authorized practice of immigration law. The period of performance for the grants is two years.

Recipient Organizations

Recipients are public or private nonprofit organizations with recent experience providing citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to permanent residents. They include public school systems, public libraries, community and faith-based groups, adult education organizations, and literacy organizations.

Recipient organizations are geographically diverse and represent both traditional immigrant destinations and new immigrant gateways across 21 states and the District of Columbia. Grant recipients plan to provide citizenship instruction and naturalization application services to approximately 10,000 permanent residents from 50 countries. Grant recipients represent:

•  Eight of the top 10 states with the largest permanent resident populations eligible to naturalize (California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington and Virginia);
• Nine of the top 10 states with the largest growth in the proportion of permanent residents in the past 10 years (California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Georgia and Maryland);
• Seventeen of the top 20 states with the largest numbers of annual naturalizations (California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Massachusetts, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Minnesota, Ohio, Connecticut and Colorado); and
• Eleven of the top 15 metropolitan areas with the greatest numbers of new permanent residents in the past 10 years (New York City, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Boston, Atlanta, Philadelphia, San Jose and Seattle).

 FY 2012 Grant Recipients

 Grant recipients are (in alphabetical order):

 Organization                                                                                                          Location

 Access California Services                                                                                 Anaheim, Calif.

Alaska Literacy Program, Inc.                                                                              Anchorage, Alaska

Asian Counseling and Referral Service                                                            Seattle, Wash.

BaltimoreCity Community College                                                                     Baltimore, Md.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Inc.                                     Atlanta, Ga.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Inc.                                   Hartford, Conn.

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, Inc.                               St. Petersburg, Fla.

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Stockton, Inc.                                         Stockton, Calif.

Central American Resource Center                                                                  Washington, D.C.

CentralAmerican Resource Center of California                                            Los Angeles, Calif.

Chinese American Service League, Inc.                                                          Chicago, Ill.

Church World Service, Inc.                                                                                  Greensboro, N.C.

City of Littleton                                                                                                        Littleton, Colo.

Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon                                                                       Portland, Ore.

Elk Grove Unified School District                                                                        Elk Grove, Calif.

FresnoUnified School District                                                                             Fresno, Calif.

HIAS and Council Migration Service of Philadelphia                                      Philadelphia, Pa.

Hispanic Unity of Florida, Inc.                                                                              Hollywood, Fla.

International Institute of Akron, Inc.                                                                     Akron, Ohio

International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit, Inc.                                            Detroit, Mich.

International Rescue Committee, Inc.                                                               New York, N.Y.

International Rescue Committee, Inc.                                                               San Jose and Sacramento, Calif.

Jewish Family and Children's Service, Inc.                                                      Waltham, Mass.

Lao Family Community of Minnesota, Inc.                                                        St. Paul, Minn.

Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota                                                       Sioux Falls, S.D.

NashvilleAdult Literacy Council                                                                          Nashville, Tenn.

Northern Manhattan Improvement Corporation                                              New York, N.Y.

Skyline Literacy                                                                                                      Harrisonburg, Va.

World Relief Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals             Spokane, Wash.

World Relief Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals             Wheaton, Ill.

Young Men’s Christian Association of the Greater Houston Area, Inc.      Houston, Texas

Review Process

USCIS conducted a thorough review of more than 150 eligible applications.Each proposal was evaluated by a three-member team composed of internal USCIS reviewers. Applications were scored numerically using published evaluation criteria and rank ordered. A second USCIS internal review panel determined the finalists based on the rank order and published strategic program priorities found on pages 10-11 of the funding opportunity announcement.

Contact Information

For additional information on the FY 2012 Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, please contact the USCIS Office of Citizenship by phone at 202-272-1310 or by email at citizenshipgrantprogram@dhs.gov. To learn more about applying for federal funding opportunities, please visit www.grants.gov or contact the Grants.govsupport line at 800-518-4726.