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 $375,000.00 total over three years to organizations that meet specified legal services needs within the immigrant and refugee communities, with $375,000.00 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 $75,000.00 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 $37,500.00 to the Our Lady of Guadalupe Center of Catholic Social Services.
Fiscal Impact: Funding is available within the Public Safety Initiatives subfund.
Emergency action is requested in order to immediately provide resources to Our Lady of Guadalupe 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 Our Lady of Guadalupe Center of Catholic Social Services 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 acc...
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