On September 17th, Cities & Counties for Citizenship, the bi-partisan national initiative aimed at increasing citizenship among eligible legal permanent residents (LPRs), celebrates its 2 year anniversary. Since its launch, 26 cities and counties have joined the initiative helping more than 10,000 legal permanent residents to naturalize. Spearheaded by Mayors Rahm Emanuel of Chicago, Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, and Bill de Blasio of New York, member cities include Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chattanooga, Chicago, Denver, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Madison, Miami-Dade County, Milwaukee, Nashville, New Haven, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Reading, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, and Washington, DC.
In the last few months, Kansas City, KS, Long Beach, CA, South Gate, CA, Suffolk County NY, and Tucson, AZ have also joined the program.
Major accomplishments since the CC4C’s launch include:
10,000+ individuals have pursued citizenship/initiated the citizenship process.
6,000+ individuals received legal assistance/referrals.
5,000+ individuals have attended financial empowerment classes.
900+ individuals have participated in 1-1 financial coaching sessions.
12,000+ have received information on the fee waiver, financial counseling, and/or citizenship microloan assistance.
For more information, take a look at our press release.
Cities & Counties for Citizenship is joining thousands of organizations across the country to celebrate Citizenship Day on Saturday, September 17th. Our participating cities and partners across the country are planning workshops and other citizenship-related events, including information sessions, classes and oath ceremonies, to help immigrants learn how to become citizens. For hundreds of legal permanent residents nationwide, these events will mark their first step towards beginning the citizenship process.
CC4C Releases Toolkit: 10 Strategies to Help Cities Launch + Strengthen Citizenship Initiatives
Cities and counties play an integral role in promoting naturalization and removing the barriers that prevent LPRs from completing the citizenship process, ultimately fostering a more inclusive, robust and representative democracy. There are now 24 participating cities and two counties, including Miami-Dade and Suffolk County – together representing over 40 additional cities, in the CC4C network. Our newly released toolkit, 10 Strategies to Launch and Strengthen Citizenship Initiatives, draws from the experiences of our member cities and highlights lessons learned and best practices from across the country to help cities create accessible, sustainable and tailored naturalization programs to promote citizenship.
Download the CC4C Toolkit, 10 Strategies to Launch and Strengthen Citizenship Initiatives.