10 nonprofits to receive first round of grants to strengthen their capacity to serve the County’s immigrant communities

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Office of Immigrant Affairs (OIA), in the Department of Consumer and Business Affairs (DCBA), celebrates National Immigrants Day on Friday, October 28, 2022, by recognizing 10 immigrant-focused Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) that are receiving capacity-strengthening grants made possible by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). Each organization will receive two-year grants of $150,000 and technical assistance as part of OIA’s Capacity Strengthening Grants for Immigrant Focused CBOs initiative.

These grants are the first round of OIA’s efforts to support CBOs that are focused on helping immigrants and their families recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. As more funds become available, OIA plans to provide similar grants to CBOs that serve immigrants throughout the LA County.

“Through the Office of Immigrant Affairs and ARP Act investments, we are ensuring that the vibrant communities we serve are able to thrive as we recover from the pandemic,” said DCBA’s Director Rafael Carbajal. “We look forward to the successful implementation of every recipient-organizations’ projects to advance our mutual missions.”

“The Center for Nonprofit Management (CNM) is honored to work with OIA and this group of nonprofit leaders over the next two years to build new skills and support their efforts to serve the many immigrant communities that enrich LA County and improve lives for so many,” said Regina Birdsell, CNM President and CEO.

Grants were made to the following immigrant-focused organizations for the following purposes:

• Al Otro Lado will expand and restructure case management services by hiring a social worker to focus on LGBTQ+, disabled, indigent, Kreyol-speaking, Indigenous language-speaking and Spanish-speaking individuals, among other marginalized groups.
• California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative will design communication strategies that reaffirm their strategic focus on racial justice and equity, Black/Asian solidarity, labor and employment rights, and securing a just economic recovery for the immigrant workforce.
• Community Lawyers, Inc. (CLI) will increase temporary program staffing so that leadership can engage in tailored technical assistance around long-term strategic visioning, planning and fundraising.
• Comunidades Indígenas en liderazgo (CIELO) will strengthen leadership and infrastructure to attend to language justice needs and fight against the invisibility of indigenous people and the resulting language violence.
• Filipino Migrant Center will hire a bilingual Communications Coordinator and a bilingual Community Organizer to develop health education programs for low-income and working class Filipino families in Los Angeles County.
• Korean American Coalition will fight against Asian hate, provide bilingual and culturally appropriate alternative dispute resolution, ongoing COVID-19 in-language outreach, leadership development for Korean American youth, and civic engagement campaigns.
• The Latino and Latina Roundtable will launch a pilot immigration program with temporary staff to coordinate immigration services and create programming and content to address the immediate needs of the immigrant community.
• Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander (NHPI) Alliance will develop specific, operations-level programs, personnel, fund development, and volunteer management plans and support the Alliance in expanding their citizenship and immigration clinics.
• Refugee Children Center will support families unable to secure pro bono or low-cost representation in filing asylum applications or withholding removal and employment authorizations forms, thus increasing participants’ chances of securing legal representation.
• Saahas for Cause will improve, configure and train staff in data collection and management, as well as strengthen the capacity of the Board of Directors, especially around roles and responsibilities and data-driven decision-making.

The 10 grantees were honored by OIA and the LA County Board of Supervisors at a virtual recognition event on Friday. A recording of the event is available on DCBA’s YouTube page.

For more information about the initiative, visit cnmsocal.org/capacity-strengthening-grants-for-immigrant-focused-cbos/. For more resources and information provided by the Los Angeles County Office of Immigrant Affairs, visit immigrants.lacounty.gov.

National Immigrants Day is a commemoration that began with an Act of Congress in 1987 to honor the contributions of immigrants both past and present. It is recognized on October 28, the day the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in 1886.