Since the summer of 2019, we at Holy Trinity have been working towards starting a ministry to immigrants in our community. Did you know that 20% of the population in South Snohomish County immigrated to the United States from other countries? About 50% of those immigrants are from Mexico and the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras). Our goal is to warmly welcome immigrants and refugees from all over the world to our community and to Holy Trinity Edmonds. We plan to do that through the services we provide and the relationships that develop. As God leads and open hearts, we hope to share the love of Christ with them. We will offer three distinct, yet related, programs: English classes; citizenship classes, and an immigration legal aid clinic. English and Citizenship classes may start this fall. The immigration legal aid clinic is the most challenging project. This clinic will be recognized by the Department of Justice and our first legal representative will be accredited by the Department of Justice. Both recognition and accreditation require a great deal of work and preparation. Hopefully, our applications to the Department of Justice for recognition and accreditation will be submitted this spring. It takes 6-12 months for those applications to be approved. We plan to begin offering immigration legal aid services by the spring of 2022. In the meantime, we hope to provide informational sessions about immigration law to immigrants who are seeking information. Though some of our programs may be months away from opening, the Department of Justice requires most pieces be in place at the time we submit our application.
We have several needs including the following: Funds! We need to hire staff, purchase case management software and malpractice insurance, provide ongoing training for staff, and more.
If you are interested in purchasing items, we need the following:
Kurzban’s Immigration Law Sourcebook, 16th or 17 th Edition (used is fine)
4 Laptop Computers
Printer with faxing capability (talk to Diane regarding specifics)
Windows and Microsoft Office Suite for each computer
Office supplies, including printer ink, paper, pens, highlighters, paper clips, file folders
And if you would like to help welcome and encourage immigrants in our community, consider getting involved.
We need volunteers!
Translators (especially Spanish)
Notetakers
A hospitality team who will welcome immigrants and prepare and serve snacks
Child care workers
Teachers (of English and/or Citizenship Classes)
A team to plan and implement a fund-raising dinner (March 2022?)
Volunteers to set up and take down space that we will use.
Questions or ideas? Contact Diane Steward at Diane.Steward@gmail.com or 425-737-3426.
2. Statement of Need for the new Initiative
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 106,000 immigrants and refugees (20% of the population) live in South Snohomish County. Many immigrants and refugees live in our neighborhoods; further, many within our congregation love and desire to welcome and empower immigrants and refugees. As we pray together, we sense God’s calling to serve these strangers in our midst. Our mission as we embark on this new ministry is to welcome and show the love of Jesus to immigrants and refugees by empowering them to become active and engaged members of our community through ESL and citizenship classes and immigration legal aid services.
Initially we will open 3-4 evenings per month at Holy Trinity Edmonds to provide ESL classes. We will add citizenship classes 6-12 months later. Each time we are open volunteers, including Father Ryan Brotherton and Father Steve Tompkins, will be available to welcome and greet each client and their accompanying family members. Those with emotional, relational or spiritual needs will also be offered free pastoral care and counseling. Clients will also be invited to visit us at Holy Trinity Edmonds.
Clearly, loving the immigrants and refugees among us also includes helping them navigate the complexities of the American immigration system. Some need help obtaining a green card so they can work and begin to support their families. Others have left family members behind in their home countries, and need help petitioning for their families to join the rest of the family here in the United States. Still others need help to become citizens or renew work permits. However, language barriers often make these tasks even more difficult. Many immigrants and refugees need help completing the numerous forms that can help them move towards becoming active and engaged members of our community.
Currently, there is only one legal aid clinic in South Snohomish County, located in Lynnwood. While there are a handful of immigration lawyers, most charge expensive fees that are beyond the financial means of the average immigrant. Further, immigrants unfamiliar with the complexities of immigration law often fall victim to dishonest persons who offer immigration legal services without proper certifications and charge exorbitant fees for their services. Sometimes this inadequate work on behalf of trusting, hard-working immigrants leads to deportations and detainment for them. Consequently, many immigrants are afraid to seek help, resulting in continued poverty and the disintegration of families as spouses and children are separated.
For these reasons, we plan to complete seek recognition as an immigration legal aid clinic through the Department of Justice (DOJ). A member of our team will also complete training and shadowing experience to meet the DOJ requirements to become an accredited legal representative who is qualified to represent immigration clients in court.
Although we will further define the most pressing legal aid needs in our community as we work through the process of becoming recognized by the DOJ, we expect to provide some combination of the following legal services: 1) Citizenship applications; 2) Green card renewals and applications; 3) Visa applications; 4) Familypetitions (for uniting families); 5) VAWA petitions (for victims of domestic abuse); and 6) others as appropriate and needed.
These legal services typically cost $3,000 - $5,000 per petition per person and are beyond the financial means of most immigrants. While we anticipate refining our fee schedule during the DOJ recognition and accreditation process, we expect to charge approximately 10% of the market rate fee.
3. Administration and Operations:
We anticipate developing and implementing plans for the following ministries to immigrants and refugees in our South Snohomish County home: 1) English as a second language; 2) Citizenship classes; 3) Immigration Legal Aid Clinic; and 4) Other services, as God leads and provides. We expect that most of these services will be provided at Holy Trinity Edmonds within our building. The conference room will be the primary place of formalized ministry, while the fellowship hall will provide space for informal conversations and meals.
Under the overall direction of Father Ryan Brotherton, we currently have a team of 8 who are passionate about loving and serving immigrants and refugees. The Team Leader, Diane Steward, has a master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership and 12 years serving immigrants as a nonprofit executive director. Additional team members include former missionaries, a trained ESL teacher, Spanish speakers, and three additional teachers.
With only one small immigration legal aid clinic in South Snohomish County, we believe there is need for another legal aid clinic. However, this is a significant commitment for a small church such as ours; consequently, we plan a two-step approach. Part of our team will be focused on visiting immigration legal aid clinics and identifying specific needs and next steps to begin the ministry. At the same time, other team members will focus on ESL and Citizenship classes, as well as other services to immigrants that may emerge through our research. We have created a 3-step plan:
1) Research (May – September 2019)
In this first phase, our primary goal is to learn. We need to know who in South Snohomish County is serving immigrants, identify the needs of immigrants in our community, determine which stakeholders are meeting needs, and identify needs that are unmet. We also hope to find potential partners in our community and further define needs that God may be calling Holy Trinity Edmonds to address. We will meet with churches and community partners as part of that research. We also hope to work with World Relief through their programs to help churches engage with immigrants and increase our knowledge and understanding of U.S. policies and immigration issues by reading books (i.e., Christians at the Border by Daniel Carroll).
We will also invite Bill and Julie Clark of Peace Catalyst to an informational dinner with us. They interact frequently with immigrants and refugees and lead Talk Time, a program to help non-English speakers learn English and build relationships through English conversations with English-speakers. The Clark’s have coached us on how to interact well with our Muslim neighbors who have attended our annual Iftar meals, and again this year, will partner with us to host our next Iftar dinner for Muslims in our community in May 2019. Finally, we will meet at least monthly to share our discoveries and pray together.
Part of our team will be doing similar research, focusing specifically on starting an immigration legal aid clinic. We will visit legal aid clinics locally (and more broadly if possible), working to identify who is providing immigration legal aid services, specific legal aid services that are being provided, and any gaps in services. We must also identify a clinic where Ms. Steward will shadow at least 40 hours as preparation to begin the DOJ accreditation training and testing that is required to become an accredited immigration legal aid representative. We will also form a nonprofit board and begin the necessary work to become an IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
2) Planning/Implementation (July – December)
Our goal is this second phase is to prayerfully determine services we will provide during the first year of HTE’s Immigration Outreach and develop and implement our programs. We will recruit teachers and other volunteers for ESL and Citizenship classes, complete any necessary training, and choose curriculum. We hope to begin ESL in the fall of 2019. During this same period, Ms. Steward will complete accreditation training and at least an additional 40 hours of shadowing to become an accredited DOJ immigration representative. At the same time, we will also work towards become a DOJ recognized site for immigration legal aid services. We hope to complete paperwork to become a recognized DOJ Immigration Legal Aid Clinic for submission by year-end 2019.
3) Continued Program Implementation (January – May 2020)
In this first year of serving immigrants and refugees in our community, we also hope to add citizenship classes and be recognized by the DOJ as an Immigration Legal Aid Clinic. If all goes smoothly, we could begin providing legal aid services in the spring of 2020; however, we understand from others that there are often obstacles that are beyond our control.
4. Outcomes:
It is our desire and prayer that the clients we serve will experience the welcome of Jesus to our South Snohomish community. In addition, we anticipate that the ESL classes will help these individuals from many differing countries to facilitate relationships and language skills that will help them to more easily adapt in their new country. Affordable immigration legal aid services will help clients achieve the legal status, work permits, and family unification for which they long. Further, achieving legal status will give clients peace of mind, enable them to contribute meaningfully to our economy, and hopefully enable families to stay together.
We will measure our success in legally assisting clients by tracking every case on a semi-monthly basis and noting each case’s progress with United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). A high level of quality legal services will be our goal. As we serve the strangers in our community through low-cost immigration legal aid, we will also seek to offer them the healing of Jesus Christ through prayer, relationships, counseling, ESL and citizenship classes and direction to other needed resources. We will track ESL learners’ progress in learning and using English, and the number of clients who obtain U.S. citizenship.
We also hope to invite and welcome immigrants into our congregation.
5. Current Financial Information: See attached.
6. Financial Support Information: Amounts only listed here.
(If needed upon request, detailed budgets and lists of sources should confirm these figures.)
1. Current fiscal year organizational operating budget: $175,003
2. Budget for specific ministry to be funded $50,000
3. Sources of support/amounts already committed to this specific ministry/project: $0
4. Sources of support/amounts requested/pending for this specific ministry/project:
Matthew 25 Initiative $25,000
Fundraising Appetizer/Dessert Event $22,500
Individual Donors, asked directly for gifts $5,000
Church/Community Partners Gifts $2,500
Total sources of support $50,000
7. Matching Funds:
Our matching funds will come from three sources: 1) Requests for contributions from individuals within our community who are passionate about immigration/social justice issues ($5,000); 2) partner churches ($2,500) and 3) a fundraising appetizer/dessert event planned for Fall 2019 ($22,500)