FY 2017 Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program: Citizenship Instruction

Description

The Office of Citizenship (OoC), within U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is charged with promoting instruction and training on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. USCIS recognizes that naturalization is an important milestone in the civic assimilation of immigrants. Naturalization requirements, such as knowledge of English and of U.S. history and civics, encourage civic learning and build a strong foundation upon which immigrants can fully assimilate into society. Through preparing for naturalization, immigrants will gain the tools to become successful citizens—and assimilate into our society and meet their responsibilities as United States citizens.USCIS acknowledges the valuable role that local service provider community-based organizations play in immigrant communities. Due to the strong relationships these agencies often have with immigrants in the local area, these organizations can assist USCIS in its effort to reach lawful permanent resident populations. The goal of the Citizenship Instruction grant is to provide support to community-based organizations in their efforts to establish new citizenship instruction programs or expand the quality and reach of existing citizenship instruction programs and to provide opportunities for lawful permanent residents to gain the knowledge and training necessary to promote their assimilation into the fabric of American society. Through this funding, USCIS will fund community-based organizations striving to professionalize and increase services to lawful permanent residents in the area of citizenship instruction. Verifiable experience in the provision of English as a Second Language (ESL) programming is required to qualify for this funding opportunity. Applicants are required to use existing expertise in ESL instruction to provide citizenship instruction. Applicants are required to include a copy of the citizenship curriculum and to provide the name of the corresponding textbook intended for use to guide the citizenship instruction throughout the program’s period of performance. OoC reserves the right to suggest changes to curriculum and educational materials after reviewing the applicant’s program during the negotiation period or the first quarter of the funding period. Grant recipients will be required to enroll at least 125 citizenship instruction students and provide a minimum of 40 hours of instruction to each student during the period of performance.If appropriate and in keeping with the applicant’s overall mission, DHS will consider applications that include the cost of U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ)'s Office of Legal Access Programs (OLAP) training for staff with the ultimate objective of obtaining DOJ accreditation.

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