Boston Organization Receives One of 40 Citizenship Grants
On Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, USCIS Awards Nearly $9.9M
to Support Citizenship Preparation Services for Permanent Residents
BOSTON — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced it will award the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) a grant of $250,000 to support its citizenship preparation services for permanent residents through September 2015. MIRA is one of 40 organizations from 21 states to receive a total of nearly $9.9 million through USCIS’ fiscal year 2013 Citizenship and Integration Grant Program.
Since the program began in October 2009, the USCIS Citizenship and Integration Grant Program has helped more than 66,000 permanent residents in 31 states and the District of Columbia prepare for citizenship. Through Sept. 30, 2015, USCIS anticipates that an additional 31,000 permanent residents will receivecitizenship preparation services.
“There is a continued need for high-quality citizenship preparation services in communities across the country,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “This funding will help thousands of permanent residents gain the support they need to learn English and civics, and embrace the important rights and responsibilities of United States citizenship.”
The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA) has provided immigration legal assistance through state contracts in New England for more than a decade. Through the Rural Massachusetts Citizenship Partnership, MIRA will partner with the Center for New Americans to offer citizenship classes in Northampton, Amherst, Greenfield, and Boston. MIRA primarily serves permanent residents from Moldova, Romania, China, the Dominican Republic, Laos, Ghana, Cambodia, Thailand, Ivory Coast, El Salvador, and Morocco. USCIS grant funding will allow MIRA to provide 230 permanent residents with citizenship instruction and 1,320 permanent residents with naturalization application services.
The Citizenship and Integration Grant Program is part of a multifaceted effort to support effective citizenship preparation services and provide information to immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations. USCIS complements this grant program with its Citizenship Resource Center, a centralized Web resource that provides learning materials to help permanent residents prepare for the naturalization process, and partnerships with federal and municipal agencies designed to raise awareness of the rights, responsibilities and importance of U.S. citizenship among the estimated 8.8 million permanent residents nationwide eligible to apply for naturalization.
This year’s announcement is part of USCIS’s celebration of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, commemorated every Sept. 17 in honor of the signing of the U.S. Constitution in 1787. In 1952, President Harry Truman signed a bill formalizing the celebration of Citizenship Day. In 2004, Congress established Sept. 17 as Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.
For additional information on the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program, please visit www.uscis.gov/grants.
麻省理工學院中國學生學者協會（CSSA）9月15日在查理士河上舉辦了該會有史以來，規模最大的一次中秋遊船酒會，共600多名來自麻州各高校的俊男美女狂歡勁舞一整晚，人人情緒高昂，流連忘返，探問下次何時再聚。
活動籌備者指出，這場中秋遊船酒會名稱為“水上熱（ Heat On Water）”，共有600多人參加，其中麻省理工本校學生約200人，來自大波頓地區其他高校的學生約400
多人，90%都是學生，男女生比例還達到0.618:1的精彩黃金分割，所有登上Provincetown II油輪的人，都在彼此年紀相近，活動設計得讓他們很快就打破不認識的尷尬中，玩得更來勁。
當晚活動在八名執委，不下80名組織者策劃下，安排的既豐富，又周到。開場時先由志工把上船的人分成10人一組，再以旅遊，大學經驗，最近發生的有趣事情等做話題，暖場的引導出席者彼此認識。晚上七點半開始第一階段的社交舞會，二樓甲板，安排了跳舞老師教基本舞步。組織者還周到的在人群中安插工作者，帶動氣氛，還找出舞跳得好的人，邀請他們上二樓甲板，和跳舞老師一起展示舞技。他們還每隔幾分鐘，就要求舞池中的人換舞伴，增加了出席者認識新鮮朋友的機會。
