SALT LAKE CITY — A $200,000 grant from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will allow Catholic Community Services to expand its outreach to immigrants and refugees seeking to become United States citizens, and also increase English Skills Learning Center of Salt Lake City’s ability to offer citizenship education. CCS is Utah’s affiliate of Catholic Charities U.S.A. ESLC is a nonprofit organization that offers free English instruction to low-income adult immigrants and refugees. The two agencies partnered to apply for the federal grant, which was awarded in October and runs for two years. "The goal is for us to have helped 300 individuals in a two-year period achieve citizenship," said Catherine Barnhart, ESLC executive director. Currently, about 200 volunteers trained and supervised by ESLC teach English to more than 500 adults in the Salt Lake area. The organization also offers programs in citizenship, workplace literacy, computer literacy and teaching parents what is expected for their children at school. The volunteers undergo 12 hours of training that includes learning theory and lesson planning, Barnhart said. They teach in places convenient for their students. "Location is one of the key parts to making our English instruction accessible to people," Barnhart said. "Our mission is to serve people with very, very limited English who have other obstacles that would keep them from attending a more traditional English school." For example, the students may work irregular shifts, have a physical handicap, not own a car and have no access to public transportation, or may be mothers with small children. Also, some may have such limited English-language capabilities that they would be unable to learn in a traditional classroom setting, Barnhart said. Two-thirds to three-quarters of ESLC clients are women, she added, "mostly because, I think, the men are out working, and trying to provide for their families, and so they find it hard to find time for English. It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they’re very busy." About 50 percent of the clients are refugees from various countries, the other half are immigrants, about 90 percent of whom speak Spanish. With the grant, ESLC has been able to hire two positions to teach English specifically for the citizenship test, which has an English language component. Barnhart said there is a great need for people to get prepared to take the citizenship test. ESLC and CCS have been working together for many years, Barnhart said. "The fact that we pulled together to apply for this grant … was just a natural outgrowth of this relationship." CCS often refers clients to ESLC for English language training, said Alyssa Williams, attorney and immigration coordinator at CCS. "We have a lot of people who come to us and say, ‘I want to apply for citizenship,’" and, even though they have been in the U.S. for the required five years, their English skills are lacking, or they’re frightened of the test and need help preparing for it, Williams said. With the partnership, "it helps us offer a better service to the clients who have come to us wanting us to help them with citizenship," she said, adding that her office can help people who are taking the ESLC classes with the citizenship application process or immigration issues. The grant also will allow CCS personnel to travel to Logan, Ogden, Provo and Saint George to process citizenship applications in those locations, Williams said. See Bishop John C. Wester’s Tuesday Tapestry video online at www.icatholic.org as he discusses the Catholic Church’s position on migrants and refugees with Aden Batar, CCS director of Immigration & Refugee Resettlement; and Jean Hill, diocesan government liaison.
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