CENTER FOR THE INTEGRATION AND ADVANCEMENT OF NEW AMERICANS INC

CIANA’s immigration services ultimately aim to lessen family isolation. In order to do so, we help immigrants access needed services, learn to negotiate American systems and advocate on their own behalf, help their children succeed, and foster long term family stability. Another major goal is to ensure the stability and sustainability of our community-based organization in order to continue to provide services that are critical in the current anti-immigrant climate. \n\nOver the past 12 years, CIANA has established a successful track record of reaching out and engaging new immigrants with holistic social, educational, and legal services. Our programs provide access to opportunities for advancement and empowerment and are staffed by multi-lingual staff and volunteers who have the cultural competency and dedication to provide high quality, personalized services in a safe and welcoming environment. We offer our immigrant families a continuum of social and educational programs that include case management, adult ESL and civics classes, citizenship preparation, immigration legal services, after school programs for children, and community outreach and engagement activities.

We believe that CIANA’s holistic approach is critical to successfully reaching and engaging immigrants and their families unable to access available relief due to fear as well as due to barriers of language and/or culture. Our welcoming and safe environment and highly personalized culturally and linguistically competent services are designed to attract individuals who may feel lost in government and large institutions. Our three core programs –case management, education, and immigration legal services –are intended to proactively reach out and engage new immigrants.\n\nWe also conduct outreach campaigns and community engagement activities utilizing our longstanding partnerships with libraries, schools, service providers, and public officials. Furthermore, we use our social media channels and website to disseminate important information on social, economic, and legal issues for immigrants and immigrant allies. All of our programs are facilitated by our multicultural/multilingual staff and volunteers who reflect the communities we serve.

CIANA is very well placed to address the barriers that prevent new immigrants from fully integrating into American society. CIANA staff and volunteers can communicate in different languages, assess family needs, provide appropriate services either directly or through community referrals, and, when necessary, escort, advocate, and translate to facilitate the process. Our model of services includes a comprehensive assessment of the family’s needs conducted by multilingual case managers. They examine demographic data, family history, as well as educational, legal, employment, health, and financial needs to develop an individualized service plan designed to improve the quality of life for the whole family. Our case managers also make referrals to linked organizations for specialized services such as healthcare, housing, child-care, employment, and public assistance, with follow-up services provided to track progress.\n\nThe implementation of our programs is spearheaded by our program directors who have extensive experience working with immigrant families and children, delivering high quality direct services, coordinating with other service providers, and forming partnerships with local businesses and government to ensure that clients have access to full services that meet their needs. A team of pro bono immigration attorneys provide immigration workshops, and a large roster of multilingual volunteers and interns donate their time to provide instruction, mentoring, tutoring, community outreach, and civic engagement activities. CIANA’s Founder and CEO has over 25 years of experience in immigrant and family services, which allows her to provide strategic and programmatic oversight for all of CIANA’s activities.

CIANA is a small community-based nonprofit that has established a track record of engaging new immigrant families and providing them with access to services and opportunities for advancement. Families who have received our services have referred their own friends and family to CIANA because of their confidence in the quality of our services, our language capacity, cultural competency, and welcoming environment. Our families tell us regularly that our classes, legal consultations, and community workshops, make a difference in their and their children’s lives.\nContinuing demand for our services and program growth is testament to the need for our services and their impact on our families. In Fiscal Year 2018, we have served immigrants coming from 50 different countries in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, and Latin America. We will have taught ESOL classes to 70 adults, civics classes to 39 adults with a 90% passing rate in the citizenship test and naturalization interview. Our immigration legal program has served 163 clients. We will have helped 57 clients with our case management services, and our after school programs have served 52 children. We have also provided immigration workshops to 231 participants. \n\nOur clients benefit from our individualized attention and small classes, and a welcoming, familial environment. They have the opportunity to improve their English skills, and learn about American government, history and culture at no cost. The continuing high attendance and retention rates in our elementary school after school tutoring program and positive feedback from the parents and students demonstrate the positive effects of our after school programs on our young immigrant children whose parents often cannot help them because of their own language limitations. Our immigration legal program has helped clients with naturalization, family petitions, asylum, DACA, special immigration visas, and other related issues, and we have provided 58 workshop sessions of valuable citizenship and Know Your Rights workshops in more than 13 neighborhoods in Queens. Our case management and casework counseling services are connecting families to community resources and government benefits including housing, food stamps, healthcare, education, employment, and other identified needs, and empowering our immigrant families to advocate for themselves and achieve their own definitions of success.