Opening Government for Immigrants

Presenter: Homa Naficy Chief Adult Learning Officer

Phone: 860.695.6334Email: naficy@hplct.org

www.hplct.org

Opening Government for Immigrants

• Facilitating access to government

services

• Brokering civic engagement

opportunities

Literacy and Access Axis

Literacies

Literacy and Access Axis

Access

Literacy and Access Axis

• VITA Tax Volunteers

• Access Health CT

• SNAP (Food stamps)• Section 8

• Immigration services

Government service facilitation

Literacy and Access Tools

Literacy and Access Axis

Value added tools

Civic Engagement Axis

Immigrant Civic Engagement

Immigration Trends

• Arriving from lesser known locations

• Settling in newer destinations

• Increase in the proportional share of

immigrants in the general population.

Civic Engagement Axis

Building Social Relationships & Bridging Social capital

An Inclusive approach to Immigrant Civic Engagement within Libraries: A Demonstration Project

Building Meaningful Connections

• Networks of trusting relationships, both with people

from like and unlike backgrounds, create one of civic

participations most powerful contributions to immigrant

integration

• People who know each other through shared work are

far less capable of stereotyping, and characterizing

people as ‘other’.

Civic Engagement Axis

Strategies

• Build coalitions among key stakeholders.

• Recruit and train volunteers to serve as Cultural

Navigators.

• Community Conversations

• Communications Campaign

Civic Engagement Axis

Community Engaged

• Commission on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs

• Neighborhood Welcoming Committee

Feasibility study for a We Belong Here Center

• We Belong Here Hartford

Civic Engagement Axis

We Belong Here

http://hpl.discovervideo.com/show/watch?id=e478f962&t=1

These initiatives have been possible

through funding from IMLS and USCIS.