California Stories

Learn how California local agencies are successfully involving immigrants in the civic, economic and political life of their communities.

• Cupertino - Citizenship Classes at Senior Center
  Victor Wong - an exemplary volunteer - teaches citizenship classes at the City of Cupertino's Senior Center. Since 2002, 1,078 of Wong's students have successfully taken the citizenship exam. According to city staff these classes help seniors feel less isolated, more independent and integrated in their community, which in turn reduces the burden on city services.
• Santa Clara County: Multimedia Tools and Community Dialogues Support Immigrant Integration
  The Silicon Valley Asian American Voices project launched in 2010 by Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) uses multimedia tools to tell the stories of Asian American immigrants and to educate and engage people on related community issues. The Voices project has worked in partnership with local officials and community partners to host community dialogues that have helped to deepen understanding of the immigrant experience, build trust between diverse communities, and empower people with the resources to promote immigrant integration.
• San Mateo County: Community Dialogues Help Immigrants And Longer-Term Residents Bridge The Cultural Gap
  Through its new Immigrant Engagement Project, the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center (PCRC) is creating opportunities for dialogue that allow recent immigrants and long-term residents of San Mateo County to get to know each other better. These dialogues will also help identify shared interests and community concerns about public services including education, community development, health and safety. After a series of intra- and inter- community dialogue sessions PCRC plans to convene a countywide summit to bring together dialogue participants and local officials to discuss the outcomes.
• San Mateo County: C.A.R.O.N. – Community Alliance to Revitalize Our Neighborhood: Violence Prevention by Engaging Youth and Immigrant Families
  C.A.R.O.N. (Community Alliance to Revitalize Our Neighborhood), an initiative of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, works to create strong and healthy immigrant families that are integrated into their community. C.A.R.O.N. works in partnership with schools, the faith community, youth groups, and parents. Family engagement and outreach programs offered through C.A.R.O.N. encourage civic participation by educating community members about their rights and responsibilities and help prevent youth violence by supporting ongoing positive connections between law enforcement and community members.
• Santa Clara County: Supporting Coordinated Immigrant Integration and Engagement Efforts
  Santa Clara County established IRIS - Immigrant Relations and Integration Services. Housed in the County Office of Human Relations, IRIS staff members work on projects that promote positive immigrant relations and integration.
• Rancho Cordova: Cooking Up New Ways to Reach Residents
  Council Member Ken Cooley discusses how community workshops helped the diverse community of Rancho Cordova deal with the home mortgage crisis.
• Lodi: Reaching out to the Pakistani-American Community
  The City of Lodi is home to a diverse population of 65,000 people, including many Latino and Pakistani immigrants and their families. Reaching out to these communities is an ongoing practice of the city.