Best Practices Toolkits

Read the New Americans Campaign Best Practices Toolkits.

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Best Practices Toolkits

Best Practices Toolkit: Municipal or State Funding for Immigration Legal Services

Numerous New Americans Campaign partners have strong relationships with elected officials who champion naturalization. One way elected officials can support naturalization is to fund immigration legal services to increase their capacity to assist applicants in completing applications. The investment of public funds in immigration legal services is an investment that builds on the social and economic contributions of immigrants.
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Citizenship Ambassadors: Peer-to-Peer Outreach for Non-Profit Naturalization Programs

The New Americans Campaign is invested in promoting outreach strategies for naturalization programs across the country. Campaign partners have consistently described peer-to-peer outreach activities as among their most effective outreach strategies. One way the Campaign has promoted outreach programs is by providing some structure for the peer-to-peer outreach through a Citizenship Ambassador model. This toolkit describes the Campaign’s Citizenship Ambassador framework and best practices shared by Campaign partners. These practices are informed by a decade of learning as we celebrate the New Americans Campaign’s tenth anniversary in 2021.
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Comprehensive Guide to Remote Citizenship Services: Lessons from the New Americans Campaign Virtual Review Pilot

The New Americans Campaign is invested in increasing the number of legally qualified permanent residents who take the critical step of becoming American citizens. One way the Campaign has expanded is by developing a replicable model for mobilizing lawful permanent residents (LPRs) to apply for naturalization outside of the traditional group processing model. This toolkit describes the tips and best practices shared by Campaign partners that participated in the Virtual Review Pilot Program between 2018 and 2020. The goal of this toolkit is to guide organizations interested in providing or expanding their remote legal services, create ongoing dialogue among organizations engaged in remote review services, and provide efficient, quality legal services to diverse LPR communities.
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Fundraising for Non-Profit Naturalization Programs

The New Americans Campaign is invested in the sustainability of naturalization programs across the country. One way the Campaign has fostered new fundraising and sustainability strategies for local naturalization programs is through our Experimentation Fund for Optimizing Revenue-raising Techniques & Streams (EFFORTS). This toolkit describes the tips and best practices shared by Campaign partners that participated in the EFFORTS program between 2018 and 2020.
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Integrating Text Messaging into Naturalization Services and Beyond


In recent years, texting has become an increasingly popular way to communicate with applicants and constituents. This toolkit provides recommendations for organizations on how to integrate text messaging into their naturalization services. It is based on best practices that New Americans Campaign partners have discovered while using text messaging with their clients in 2018 and 2019, through Campaign Innovation Fund grants, the Campaign’s Civic Engagement pilot project, and their day-to-day outreach and provision of naturalization services.
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Prescreening and Red Flags - Updated for 2019


The New Americans Campaign provides a significant percentage of naturalization services through group processing workshops – events serving 10-600+ lawful permanent residents (LPRs) within a single day. This group approach is critical to the Campaign’s goal of significantly increasing the number of LPRs who complete their naturalization applications. It also serves as a foundation for other immigration service delivery. This toolkit provides recommendations for organizations on how to screen LPRs before a workshop for their eligibility to naturalize, as well as how to review the suitability of their case for assistance in a workshop setting.
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Partnerships with Professional Sports


Partnerships with professional sports teams can be a powerful way to share the benefits of citizenship and encourage lawful permanent residents (LPRs) to apply for citizenship. Numerous New Americans Campaign (NAC) partners have built relationships with professional teams that have benefited Campaign partners, their volunteers, and potential applicants alike. This toolkit describes the benefits, processes, and outcomes for non-profit organizations of partnering with professional sports teams.
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Citizenship Strategies to Create Welcoming Communities


This toolkit was developed by Welcoming America and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center to provide promising practices and suggestions to engage receiving communities at the intersection of citizenship and welcoming work. Receiving communities are comprised of both established immigrants and non-immigrants. Informing this toolkit are lessons from demographically and socioeconomically diverse communities across the United States that are building receiving communities engagement strategies into their citizenship work and using citizenship as an effective avenue for creating immigrant and refugee-friendly environments.
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Engaging Pro Bono Attorneys in Naturalization Workshops


This toolkit was developed by OneJustice and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center to help immigration services providers nationwide leverage the enthusiasm and skills of volunteer attorneys at naturalization workshops. It is designed to help organizations and collaborations carry out naturalization workshops that include pro bono attorneys as volunteers. The focus of this toolkit is pro bono attorneys who are not immigration attorneys, although many immigration attorneys also donate pro bono time. At the end of this toolkit are sample materials to supplement an organization’s existing tools or benefit organizations who are new to running naturalization workshops.
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Effective Models for Delivering Naturalization Services Using Citizenshipworks


This guide provides an overview of best practices and service delivery models for nonprofit partners who would like to use Citizenshipworks to implement more efficient, applicant-driven naturalization services in order to increase the number of applicants they serve and reduce costs. It also includes an overview of the Citizenshipworks mobile application.
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A Case Study in Innovative Partnerships: How Human Services Agencies Can Help Increase Access to U.S. Citizenship

by Marion Coddou, Ph.D., Stanford University


Partnerships with local government can generate significant increases in the number of eligible lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who apply to become U.S. citizens. This case study of the New Americans Campaign’s unique partnership with human services agencies in three San Francisco Bay Area counties provides a roadmap for similar partnerships nationwide.
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Serving a Diversity of Applicants


Like American society at large, America’s LPRs are diverse. They come from over a hundred different countries; they live in rural, suburban, and urban locations; they have a wide range of literacy and education levels; and they speak hundreds of languages. NAC partners navigate applicants’ experiences and proficiencies as they provide naturalization services across the country. The best practices in this toolkit help partners serve a broad range of applicants while not sacrificing efficiency.
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Using Volunteers in Naturalization Workshops


Volunteers are a critical component of efficient naturalization service delivery, especially in group processing workshops, which the New Americans Campaign promotes. This toolkit provides recommendations for organizations on how to recruit, train, retain, and effectively use volunteers at group processing workshops.
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Characteristics of Successful Site Leaders


The New Americans Campaign’s unique structure uses site leaders to lead the campaign in each community. This toolkit illuminates the characteristics of a successful site leader, so that collaborations can appropriately choose which organization, and which person within that organization, should serve as the local site leader.
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Maintaining Momentum through Collaboration: Tips for NAC Partners Serving Naturalization and DACA/DAPA Applicants


Many partners in the New Americans Campaign who provide naturalization assistance to lawful permanent residents will expand their services to individuals eligible for the administrative relief programs announced by President Obama in 2014, including the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the new Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) program. Naturalization application assistance is a critical element of immigrant integration and the core focus of the NAC. This document contains best practices for NAC partners to successfully maintain their naturalization work while also assisting DACA/DAPA clients. These specific recommendations come from NAC partners who have found success in their current or previous work with DACA and other immigration benefits.
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