We are proud to join Cities for Citizenship in celebrating its two-year anniversary this September. As a result of Cities of Citizenship, more than 10,000 eligible immigrants are on track to become American citizens, while more than 65,000 have been connected with naturalization resources and more than 5,000 have attended financial empowerment classes.

Cities for Citizenship (C4C) is a collaboration co-chaired by the mayors of Chicago Los Angeles, and New York City with support from the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) and CPD. As a core partner of this program, CPD provides regular technical support and policy advice, assistance with organizing strategies, best practices from other cities, communications and press strategy support, and planning and implementing C4C events and activities.

The bipartisan effort joins 26 mayors across the U.S. committed to building economically robust and welcoming cities for the 8.8 million Legal Permanent Residents, or green card holders, eligible for citizenship. Research by the Urban Institute and supported by NYC’s Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Citi Community Development shows that the U.S. is missing out on billions of dollars in tax revenues and earnings due to this naturalization gap. Cities for Citizenship enables cities to expand naturalization and financial capability programs, as well as access to legal assistance, microloans and financial counseling. The benefits of naturalization include higher earning potential for new citizens, increase voting and political participation, improved connections between communities and local services, and reduced deportation rates.

Since the program’s launch, 10,000+ individuals have pursued citizenship/initiated the citizenship process; 6,000+ individuals received legal assistance/referrals; 5,000+ individuals have attended financial empowerment classes; 900+ individuals have participated in 1-1 financial coaching sessions; 12,000+ have received information on the fee waiver, financial counseling, and/or citizenship microloan assistance; and outreach has been conducted in more than 15 different languages, including Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Creole, Farsi, French, Ilocano, Khmer, Korean, Laotian, Mandingo, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Twi, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

This month, the program also released a toolkit “10 Strategies to Help Cities Launch and Strengthen Citizenship Initiatives.” Stay updated and follow the initiative on Twitter with #Cities4Citizenship.