This morning’s webinar on the recently released Civics and Citizenship Toolkit for Public Libraries featured Carlos Munoz-Acevedo of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services who detailed the resources available from the USCIS to aid libraries in developing programs for immigrants so they can negotiate the path to citizenship.
The toolkit is available for free to public libraries. You can look at the contents of the toolkit here. Many of the resources of the toolkit are available for download in 13 languages. A copy of the toolkit has been ordered for Sno-Isle.
Librarians Mary Jane Vinella of King County Library System and Homa Naficy from Hartford Public Library in Connecticut shared information about programs for immigrants at each of their libraries.
Hartford P.L. offers an extensive array of services to immigrants ranging from English classes, interpretation services, as well as counseling services on how to avoid costly legal fees and immigrations scams that prey on the unwary. The program is funded by an LSTA grant. Similarly King County Library offers a mixture of ESL classes, talk time programs, and citizenship classes and uses volunteers as well as library staff.
Webjunction offers the complete webinar as well as the presentation slides through their site.
