Pima Community College will receive $100,000 in federal money to expand its citizenship classes for legal permanent residents.
The college will use the funds to enroll 200 legal permanent residents in eight new citizenship-education classes, according to a news release from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which awarded the funding.
The college has offered citizenship classes for 15 years, but this is the first time it has received funding from the agency's 2-year-old grant program, said Paul Schwalbach, marketing and public relations coordinator at Pima Community College. Currently, the college has 12 citizenship classes at its three centers, three libraries and one Tucson Unified School District school, he said.
Overall, Citizenship and Immigration Services is giving out $7.8 million in grants to 75 organizations across the country for citizenship-education classes in fiscal year 2010, according to an agency press release. Last fiscal year, the agency awarded $1.2 million in grants to 13 organizations across the country.
The goal is to help legal permanent residents who are in line to become citizens improve their English and learn about U.S. history and government.
Pima Community College is one of two programs in Arizona to receive funds this year: The International Rescue Committee in Phoenix will get $100,000 to expand citizenship classes for legal permanent residents from Somalia, Burundi, Cuba, Iraq and Mexico, the U.S. news release says.
To become a U.S. citizen, a person must be a legal permanent resident and have lived in the U.S. continuously for five years. If the person became a legal permanent resident because they married a U.S. citizen, they can usually become a citizen after only three years if they choose.
In fiscal year 2009, more than 743,700 people became naturalized U.S. citizens, including 12,377 in Arizona.
Those numbers were down from the record-breaking fiscal 2008, when more than 1 million people became citizens nationwide, including 24,055 in Arizona. Through June of fiscal 2010, 442,453 people had become citizens nationwide, including 9,299 in Arizona.
PCC getting funds for citizenship-education classes[/ur
The college will use the funds to enroll 200 legal permanent residents in eight new citizenship-education classes, according to a news release from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which awarded the funding.
The college has offered citizenship classes for 15 years, but this is the first time it has received funding from the agency's 2-year-old grant program, said Paul Schwalbach, marketing and public relations coordinator at Pima Community College. Currently, the college has 12 citizenship classes at its three centers, three libraries and one Tucson Unified School District school, he said.
Overall, Citizenship and Immigration Services is giving out $7.8 million in grants to 75 organizations across the country for citizenship-education classes in fiscal year 2010, according to an agency press release. Last fiscal year, the agency awarded $1.2 million in grants to 13 organizations across the country.
The goal is to help legal permanent residents who are in line to become citizens improve their English and learn about U.S. history and government.
Pima Community College is one of two programs in Arizona to receive funds this year: The International Rescue Committee in Phoenix will get $100,000 to expand citizenship classes for legal permanent residents from Somalia, Burundi, Cuba, Iraq and Mexico, the U.S. news release says.
To become a U.S. citizen, a person must be a legal permanent resident and have lived in the U.S. continuously for five years. If the person became a legal permanent resident because they married a U.S. citizen, they can usually become a citizen after only three years if they choose.
In fiscal year 2009, more than 743,700 people became naturalized U.S. citizens, including 12,377 in Arizona.
Those numbers were down from the record-breaking fiscal 2008, when more than 1 million people became citizens nationwide, including 24,055 in Arizona. Through June of fiscal 2010, 442,453 people had become citizens nationwide, including 9,299 in Arizona.
PCC getting funds for citizenship-education classes[/ur
