NEW YORK, CMC – New York Metropolis Mayor’s Workplace of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) has launched what it describes as the biggest, most complete, and coordinated municipal authorized providers and group help community for Caribbean and different immigrants in the US.
MOIA mentioned this initiative will ship “free, high-quality immigration authorized help, help providers, and immigrant rights schooling instantly within the neighborhoods” the place Caribbean and different immigrant New Yorkers stay and work.
“This effort is the belief of a long-held imaginative and prescient: a extra built-in, community-rooted method that connects NYC authorities to immigrant neighborhoods throughout the 5 boroughs,” Manuel Castro, Commissioner of the New York Metropolis Mayor’s Workplace of Immigrant Affairs, advised the Caribbean Media Company (CMC).
“This effort builds upon three and a half years of arduous work by our crew, navigating unprecedented challenges and a number of crises which have deeply impacted our immigrant communities,” he added.
“Throughout this time, MOIA has invested extra funding and issued extra contracts to nonprofit companions than at some other level in its historical past, laying the muse for this second. With this, we’re constructing infrastructure not only for immediately, however for years to return,” Castro mentioned.
The community options 38 MOIA Immigration Authorized Assist Facilities, which can function community-based hubs, offering immigration authorized screenings, full illustration, professional se help, immigrant rights schooling, and referrals to metropolis providers.
MOIA acknowledged that these facilities are strategically situated throughout all 5 boroughs of New York Metropolis, with further high-capacity hubs operated by citywide suppliers.
Collectively, MOIA mentioned these authorized hubs symbolize a complete funding of US$18.8 million in three-year contracts and US$11.6 million in one-year contracts.
It mentioned complementing these hubs are specialised and focused investments, together with a community of three MOIA facilities for speedy response help (US$500,000); seven MOIA facilities for Haitian group help (US$1.65 million); 17 MOIA facilities for immigrant rights schooling situated in trusted neighborhood-based organizations (US$443,600); a partnership with New York Metropolis’s three library techniques to supply rights-based English language lessons; and data at over 60 library branches throughout the 5 boroughs (US$600,000).
To additional strengthen this community, MOIA mentioned it is usually investing in “high quality, consistency, and repair coordination” by means of the MOIA Authorized Technical Mentorship Programme, a programme to strengthen the consistency and sustainability of immigration authorized providers citywide (US$1.2 million over three years) and the MOIA Immigration Authorized Assist Hotline, offering authorized navigation and referrals throughout the 5 boroughs (US$632,500).
“This layered, citywide mannequin is designed for each scale and depth.. It blends high-capacity authorized hubs with culturally particular providers and broad group entry factors, making certain that immigrant New Yorkers, no matter borough, language, or immigration standing, have significant, trusted pathways to authorized assist and metropolis assets.” MOIA mentioned.
MOIA mentioned the community can develop and adapt to evolving wants and crises.
“Above all, it’s transformative by design, changing fragmented entry with an built-in, community-rooted method and establishing long-term, sturdy infrastructure designed not solely to serve immediately’s wants, but additionally to develop and adapt within the years forward,” MOIA mentioned.
