CHD Receives $188,000 Immigration Grant

Farmworkers, family and others across 11 counties to gain assistance

Today, California Human Development (CHD) learned it will receive $188,000 to provide immigration services across 11 northern California counties in 2017. The funding comes from the State of California, Department of Social Services and allows important grant-funded work that began last year to continue. CHD is a non-profit organization waging the War on Poverty across northern California for 50 years and providing expert immigration assistance to farmworkers and others of low income for over 30 years.

“This is great news!” says Christopher Paige, Chief Executive Officer. ‘State funding is essential to continue our work and I’m proud to say CHD is uniquely positioned to deliver these life-changing services, especially to farmworkers in rural communities.”

The state identified “hard to reach” communities as an area of focus for the 2017 funding.  CHD’s outreach serves severely impoverished farmworkers and others in Lake, Mendocino, Butte, Del Norte, Sonoma, Solano, San Juaquin, Yolo, Yuba and Sutter counties. The goal is to serve hard-to-reach individuals who are eligible for a variety of legal immigration pathways, but have not applied.

Services made possible through the new funding will focus on assisting applicants to become citizens, DACA, and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA), which is currently on-hold pending the outcome of the presidential election and a new appointment to the Supreme Court. DAPA would provide legal status for the parents of American-born children and other U.S. citizens, while DACA helps foreign-born teens and young adults primarily raised in the U.S. to obtain legal status.

During 2017, CHD will provide education and outreach to over 1200 people in its service area and will provide legal expertise and direct services to 499 people, assisting them to receive DACA, DAPA (pending approval), naturalization, and other immigration pathways such as U-Visas for victims of violent crimes.

CHD is one of 80 non-profit organizations to receive nearly $25 million in immigration funding from the state during 2017. For more information visit:  www.cdss.ca.gov/immigrationservices/PG4818.htm