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 access to case management assistance and key legal resources such as know-your-rights sessions; and
WHEREAS, Columbus Families Together Fund expands access to critical legal resources to immigrant and refugees families that will improve their understanding of their rights when interacting with immigration officials and assist them with navigating through the federal immigration system; and
WHEREAS, Catholic Social Services through the Our Lady of Guadalupe Center has been serving the Hispanic community in Central Ohio since 1999 and this grant will allow it to expand its existing services to provide know-your-rights sessions, additional case management and support services, additional legal services, and education programs to the community at large; and
WHEREAS, an emergency exists such that it is immediately necessary to authorize the City Clerk to enter into a grant agreement with Our Lady of Guadalupe to avoid any disruption in legal services for immigrant and refugee families in order to preserve the public peace, property, and health or safety; now, therefore,
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF COLUMBUS:
SECTION 1. That the City Clerk is hereby authorized to enter into a grant agreement with Our Lady of Guadalupe for the purpose of providing legal services for immigrant and refugee families in relation to Columbus Families Together Fund.
SECTION 2. That the City Auditor is hereby authorized and directed to appropriate $37,500.00 in the Public Safety Initiatives subfund, fund 1000, subfund 100016, to Columbus City Council, in Object Class 03 - Contractual Services, per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
See Attached File: 1560-2021.xls
SECTION 3. That the expenditure of $37,500.00 or so much thereof as may be needed pursuant to the actions authorized in SECTION 1, is hereby authorized in the Public Safety Initiatives subfund, fund 1000, subfund 100016, in Object Class 03 - Contractual Services, per the accounting codes in the attachment to this ordinance.
See Attached File: 1560-2021.xls
SECTION 4. That the City Auditor is authorized to make any accounting changes to revise the funding source for all contracts or contract modifications associated with this legislation.
SECTION 5. That for the reasons stated in the preamble hereto, which is hereby made a part hereof, this ordinance is hereby declared to be an emergency measure and shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval by the Mayor, or 10 days after passage if the Mayor neither approves nor vetoes the same.