Silicon Valley groups receive $1.39M for immigrant services

Monday, March 9, 2009, 11:37am PDT
Silicon Valley groups receive $1.39M for immigrant servicesSilicon

Silicon Valley Community Foundation gives nonprofits $3M in emergency funds

Organizations will receive a total of $1.39 million in grants to expand legal services for immigrants and refugees in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and increase arts and communications programs, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation announced.

"The future of our region is intertwined and dependent on the success of the many immigrants who come to our communities seeking new opportunities," said Emmett D. Carson, CEO and president of the community foundation. "While highly-skilled and well-paid immigrants can afford attorneys, too many immigrants do not have incomes that allow them to get the legal help they need with routine and complex citizenship and immigration cases. These grants mean more families will be served and our communities will be better prepared for inevitable immigration reforms."

Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County received two grants totaling $172,460. One of the grants will help expand legal services at its Eastside Neighborhood center in San Jose and in Gilroy. The other grant will help Catholic Charities coordinate a planning process for a new Immigrant Legal Services Collaborative, which will work to improve immigrants’ access to legal services by determining which cases are the highest priorities to take on, which agencies will focus on which type of clients and how services might be distributed geographically.

Collaborative Resources for Immigrant Services on the Peninsula received a $250,000 grant to provide legal services to low-income immigrants, focusing on children and their immigrant families. CRISP was formed in 2005 and is made up of six community-based organizations that provide direct services to immigrants on the Peninsula and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center in San Francisco.

Immigrant Legal Resource Center of San Francisco received a $50,000 grant to explore developing Web-based solutions such as podcasts, wikis and other social networking platforms to distribute free legal resources and online training to nonprofit legal service providers in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

Asian American Recovery Services of Santa Clara County received a $75,000 grant for its Vietnamese Community Integration Campaign, which shares challenges faced by the Vietnamese community through theater and media campaigns. AARS plans to create theater performances illustrating the struggles of cultural integration and to broadcast stories from those performances on a Vietnamese radio station.

Peninsula Interfaith Action received a $75,000 grant to create a series of multi-media products including stories, Webcasts and photo essays to deepen multicultural understanding and facilitate public policy discussions between PIA leaders and public officials.


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