Partnership Launches National Become a Citizen Now! Campaign
On Saturday, March 24, 2012, the National Partnership for New Americans launched its Become a Citizen Now! national citizenship campaign by training hundreds of volunteers across the country to become citizenship coaches, who will volunteer at citizenship clinics and assist Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) through the citizenship process.
The Partnership also launched a one-stop online platform for naturalization assistance with www.becomeacitizennow.org in English and www.hazteciudadanoahora.org in Spanish. Plus, the Partnership has launched itself on active social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. In addition to these platforms being great citizenship resources, they also help drive a national conversation around immigrant integration and human rights.
The Become a Citizen Now! launch was covered by Univision's NBC Latino, Despierta America, MetroWest Daily News, Hispanic Tips, Equal Voice, South Florida Caribbean News, and others.
Across the country, our partners hosted a variety of events and trained many volunteers:
NAKASEC in California: 25 people volunteered on Saturday's citizenship clinic co-hosted by NALEO and SEIU which was attended by 190 community members, 50 of whom were Korean. In total, 35 N400 applications were processed for Korean Americans.
VOCES de la Frontera in Wisconsin: Hosted an informational session attended by 60 Legal Permanent Residents.
CIRC in Colorado: Hosted a volunteer training on completing the N400 and fee waivers attended by 40 people. CIRC will be hosting their first citizenship clinic on April 28.
FLIC in Florida: 30 people attended two volunteer trainings given by two experienced attorneys and will be hosting their first workshop on April 21.
TIRRC in Tennessee: at the launch, 22 volunteers attended a training which included fee waivers. TIRRC held its first citizenship clinic on April 1.
CAUSA in Oregon: On March 17, CAUSA hosted its first citizenship clinic in which 27 volunteers helped process 31 N400 applications. On March 24, 20 volunteers received training.
OneAmerica in Washington: Held a volunteer luncheon for 218 volunteers and prospective volunteers honoring the 3600+ hours attorney volunteers have donated since 2008. OneAmerica also held four citizenship academies across the state training 121 new volunteers and creating community outreach squads in four sites for the upcoming Citizenship Days on April 21.
MIRA in Massachusetts: Trained 25 volunteers, 65 people came to the citizenship clinic where 42 completed N400s.
CASA de Maryland: AmeriCorps members completed a training for people attending an upcoming citizenship clinic.
NYIC in New York: On March 7, 31 people were trained for BIA training and 32 people were trained for BIA citizenship and naturalization. A two-day naturalization training also took place on March 19 and 20.
ICIRR in Illinois: On March 24, two citizenship clinics took place in Chicago. Over 120 applicants completed N400 citizenship applications, and over two hundred volunteers were trained leading up to the launch.
During the year, we aim to reach almost 73,000 LPRs though general outreach and media, assist almost 13,000 LPRs, and complete 3,650 N400 applications.
"The successful launch of our citizenship campaign marks the beginning of a truly vibrant and welcoming society in which immigrants are able to contribute at every level," says Eva Millona, co-chair of the Partnership and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. "We would like to take this opportunity to extend our deepest appreciation to the Open Society Foundation whose encouragement and financial support made this campaign possible."
