Deadline: 31-Aug-20
The Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement is pleased to announce the 2020 Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program on Refugee and Asylee Assimilation Program (RAAP).
The primary focus of the RAAP is to provide individualized programming to LPRs who entered the United States under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) or were granted asylum, to attain the skills and knowledge required for successful citizenship and to foster a sense of belonging and attachment to the United States. LPRs who entered the United States as Cuban or Haitian entrants or on a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) are not eligible for services under this program. This grant strives to promote long-term civic assimilation of those LPRs who have identified naturalization as a goal, yet may need additional information and instruction to attain it.
Proposed services must include these mandatory elements listed below:
- Development of an individual assimilation plan for each LPR who will receive services: The intent of this requirement is to develop an assimilation road map for LPRs who have identified naturalization as a goal, including those who are not yet ready to apply for naturalization and may require interim services to attain the skills and knowledge required for successful citizenship. Each enrolled LPR should be assessed for English language level and naturalization eligibility and provided with information on the naturalization process and guidance on what steps are needed to prepare for naturalization.
- Provision of or referral to assimilation services that address the specific needs identified in the LPR’s individual assimilation plan: Grantees must offer access to a range of services designed to foster long-term assimilation that are tailored to the specific needs of the target population.
- Civics-based literacy instruction, civics-based ESL instruction, and citizenship instruction to provide enrolled clients with the skills and knowledge needed to prepare for citizenship: Based on the assessment conducted to develop the LPR’s individual assimilation plan and student progress during the grant period, a minimum of 150 students should be enrolled in an appropriate instruction level.
- Provision of free naturalization application services, within the scope of the authorized practice of immigration law: Grant recipients must provide services at no cost to the applicant to support the naturalization application submission and interview process. Naturalization application services can only be provided to LPRs who entered the United States under the USRAP or were granted asylum and who also have had a full assessment of their assimilation needs and have a completed assimilation plan.
Funding Information
- Available Funding for the NOFO: Approximately $1.8 million
- Projected number of Awards (Optional): Up to 6
- Projected Period of Performance Start Date(s): 10/01/2020
- Projected Period of Performance End Date(s): 09/30/2022
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Applicant:
- City or township governments
- County governments
- Independent school districts
- Native American tribal government (federally recognized)
- Native American tribal organizations, other than federally recognized tribal governments
- Nonprofits with 501(c)(3) IRS status, other than institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- Public and state controlled institutions of higher education
- Special district governments
- State governments
To be eligible for this program, applicants and sub-awardees must meet the below requirements.
- Applicants and any proposed sub-awardees must be organizations with public or non-profit status;
- Applicants and any proposed sub-awardees must demonstrate extensive experience with and knowledge of the provision of ongoing assimilation services to the proposed former refugee/asylee population and describe why the applicant is uniquely suited to serve this particular population.
- Applicants must demonstrate a robust network of local service providers with whom the applicant has an established and ongoing relationship for the provision of any proposed assimilation services that will not be provided directly by the applicant.
- At the time of application, applicants and/or any sub-awardees that propose to provide civics-based literacy, civics-based ESL, and citizenship instruction must have at least 1 year of experience in the past 3 years providing direct-service ESL instruction in a classroom setting that follows a curriculum and utilizes a textbook.
- Applicants and/or any sub-awardees that propose to provide naturalization application services must have at least 1 year of experience in the past 3 years providing naturalization application services within the authorized practice of immigration law to clients, and must at the time of application:
- Be recognized by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Access Programs and employ at least one DOJ-accredited representative employee (partial accreditation is acceptable) with experience providing clients with naturalization representation; or
- Have at least one attorney on staff as a paid employee with experience providing clients with naturalization representation.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=327876