Explanation
Columbus City Council established the Columbus Families Together Fund (CFTF) in 2017 to protect immigrant and refugee families in Central Ohio from the long-term financial and emotional devastation that results from aggressive deportation. The CFTF will provide $375,000 total over three years to organizations that meet specified legal services needs within the immigrant and refugee communities, with $375,000 allocated by the City of Columbus.
Columbus City Council solicited proposals from nonprofit legal service providers in the Central Ohio area to receive grants totaling $75,000 towards legal services that help keep families together in the Central Ohio immigrant and refugee communities.
Four grant applications were received for the Additional Legal Services Grant fund. A review committee of five immigration experts reviewed the grant applications and recommended that Columbus City Council award $37,500 to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund.
Emergency action is requested in order to immediately provide resources to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Ohio to avoid any disruption in legal services for immigrant and refugee families.
Title
To authorize the City Clerk to enter into a grant agreement with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Ohio for the purpose of providing legal services for immigrant and refugee families in relation to Columbus Families Together Fund; to authorize an appropriation and expenditure within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund; and to declare an emergency. ($37,500.00)
Body
WHEREAS, Columbus prides itself on being a diverse city where more than 10 percent of the city’s residents are foreign-born, the Somali population is the second largest in the nation, and nearly half of all refugees settled in Ohio are settled in Franklin County; and
WHEREAS, low-income immigrants currently lack sufficient access to case ma...
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