LOS ANGELES: Ecumenical refugee agency awarded 'highly competitive' $115,000 federal grant
Episcopal News Service. September 30, 2010 [093010-02]
Pat McCaughan
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, an ecumenical agency under the auspices of the Diocese of Los Angeles, has been awarded a "highly competitive" $115,000 federal grant to enable the diocesan agency to expand legal and education services for those seeking to become U.S. citizens.
For IRIS Executive Director Meghan Tumilty the timing couldn't have been more significant.
"IRIS has been resettling refugees for five years now; our refugees are eligible to apply for citizenship after they've been in the United States for five years. Now we are able to help our original refugees apply for citizenship," she said during a Sept. 28 telephone interview from her Los Angeles office.
IRIS, which expects to resettle about 900 refugees in 2010, is an affiliate agency of three national organizations working in conjunction with the U.S. State Department: Episcopal Migration Ministries; Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Church World Service.
The United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Sept. 17 awarded $7.8 million in grants to 75 community-based organizations across the country, including a $380,000 grant to Church World Service (CWS).
CWS in turn designated $115,000 of the award to IRIS because the agency "resettles a lot of refugees each year," said Tara Pinkham, associate director for CWS' immigration and refugee program. "Since they're resettled already they have a relationship and are likely to come back to IRIS to receive these services. Some of them are coming up on five years of having green cards, so they will be eligible for naturalization services."
IRIS had participated in the grant application process along with CWS, Pinkham said. CWS is one of the 75 agencies selected from among 400 eligible applicants, according to a USCIS statement.
Pinkham said it is important to thank USCIS, an arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, for the funding, a significant increase from last year's $1.2 million grants. "Under this grant we're allowed to help lawful permanent residents learn English in preparation for the naturalization exams ... and will benefit those immigrant communities in integrating into this country," Pinkham said.
CWS has resettled about 7,000 refugees in 21 states within the past year, according to Carol Fouke-Mpoyo, information specialist for the immigration and refugee program. The agency has affiliates in 34 cities in 21 states, and is one of 10 U.S. national voluntary agencies that collectively resettle about 70,000 refugees yearly, she added.
Locally, Tumilty said the grant will enable the agency to "help us build and maintain a greater legal library, send staff to legal training, hire an English as Second Language (ESL) instructor, purchase ESL/civics supplies, and help cover the operating costs for assisting a minimum of 420 immigrants file for naturalization and 270 students learn the basic English and civics needed for their naturalization exam.
"It's really giving IRIS the money we need to get an immigration clinic started. We've already started to see some clients; this will help us expand our focus," Tumilty said.
The immigration clinic, begun in July, has assisted more than 150 clients with such services as: adjustment of status (green cards); naturalization applications; temporary protected status; certificates of citizenship; employment authorization and family relative petitions, she said.
On Oct. 5, the agency will begin a Conversation Café, an ESL class tailored to help refugees aged 55 and older with basic conversational English, she added.
The agency also aims to help older refugees learn the public transportation system in Los Angeles and about all of the services available to them in their new home, a program funded by the California Community Foundation Immigrant Integration Initiative, she said.
"We are trying to combat the isolation and feeling of uselessness we are finding some of our older refugees experience after arrival," Tumilty explained.
Since its creation in 2005, IRIS has placed more than 5,300 refugees in the six-county Diocese of Los Angeles area. Most of them came to the United States to be reunited with family after being separated in their war-torn countries. The majority of refugees currently served are from Iran, "who are persecuted because they're religious minorities, mostly Christian, Baha'i, or Zoroastrian," said Tumilty.
"We are starting to resettle more and more Iraqis, who are also persecuted because of religion and also because of affiliation with the United States and ... we expect those numbers to increase next year," she said.
The agency also has expanded to include a multilingual staff of 10 people. In addition to basic resettlement services, the agency also offers a weekly food pantry for the newly arrived, Tumilty said.
"By supporting the integration of those on the path to citizenship, we are able to send a welcoming message to those who aspire to become U.S. citizens," said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. "At the same time [we] proactively foster an increased understanding of the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship that are so foundational to our experience as Americans."
The awards were part of USCIS's celebration of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, celebrated every Sept. 17 in remembrance of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.
"We are very excited about this grant and how it will help us give our clients what they need to become U.S. citizens," Tumilty said.