June 2, 2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. (CLINIC) has presented its second Lily Gutierrez Memorial Award to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Hartford.
The award, presented at CLINIC’s annual convention May 19-21, confers a monetary grant to an affiliate of the network that has demonstrated outstanding services to immigrants within its first two years of existence.
"CLINIC’s goal is to expand access to affordable legal services for immigrants. Catholic Charities of Hartford has demonstrated a commitment to and understanding of this mission," said Jeff Chenoweth, director of CLINIC’s Center for Citizenship and Immigrant Communities, which works with nonprofit immigration programs to enhance and increase their service capacity.
Established in 2008, the immigration program of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Hartford was selected for its outstanding program management as well as the services it offers to low income and vulnerable immigrants. In addition, the program successfully earned accreditation from the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) for two staff members to allow them to lawfully provide legal assistance to immigrants.
Additionally, the program has also achieved certification as a BIA recognized agency.
"This program has worked strategically since it was established to steadily increase the services that are available to immigrants in its community. It provides ESL classes, assistance with citizenship applications and family petitions. Additionally, it has opened a second office to better serve the nearby New Haven community," said Mr. Chenoweth.
The Lily Gutierrez Memorial Award was established to recog-nize the contributions of longtime CLINIC board member and former regional director Lily Gutierrez.
In addition to the Lily Gutierrez Memorial Award, CLINIC also presented its annual BIA Pro Bono Project Award to the Clinical Legal Studies Program at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University.
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