One NYC One Nation brings together New York City’s philanthropic, political, and grassroots leadership to strengthen immigrant communities by collaborating and leveraging resources, programs, and events throughout the city.

Civic Leadership & Community Bridge Building
Projects in this area will build support networks for emerging immigrant leaders and promote interactions that increase access to city government and civic participation of immigrant communities through leadership development.

Know Your Rights and Responsibilities Forums
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs is organizing Know Your Rights and Responsibilities Forums to highlight available city services and present opportunities for civic engagement.  The forums are organized in collaboration with a host community organization or leader and connect community members to city agencies based on expressed interests and concerns. They provide a participatory format for neighborhood residents to interact with government representatives. Forums educate and build capacity of community members regarding important subjects such as education, health, and financial empowerment. 

By the end of 2011, MOIA has convened over 1500 immigrant New Yorkers in Know Your Rights and Responsibilities Forums.

Neighborhood Leadership Institutes
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and The New York Community Trust, in partnership with Citizens Committee for New York City, are offering free skill-building workshops for emerging immigrant leaders. The Neighborhood Leadership Institutes target priority neighborhoods with fast-growing immigrant communities and aim to cultivate meaningful relationships with emerging community leaders. Workshops will cover navigating city government, fundamentals of organizing, fundraising, networking with local leaders, and more. These immigrant leaders will create volunteer-led community improvement projects. Groups will be invited to apply for micro-grant funds and project planning assistance to implement these projects upon completion of the training.

By May 2012, 125 immigrant community leaders in all five boroughs will complete Neighborhood Leadership Institutes.

Immigrant Civic Leadership Program (CORO NY)
Twenty emerging immigrant leaders have been selected for a special 6-month leadership training program in partnership with the CORO New York Leadership Center, where they will gain the skills to effectively change their organizations and communities and collaborate on community development proposals with assistance and mentorship from Coro’s diverse and influential alumni network. The ICLP seeks to identify a new wave of leaders in immigrant communities who have ideas for reshaping their neighborhoods to better suit the changing populations.

As of December 2011, twenty-one emerging immigrant leaders have completed
Coro NY’s immigrant civic leadership program.

Education & Economic Opportunity
Projects in this area will strengthen immigrant communities by increasing access to information about government services, expanding opportunities for economic security, and building capacity to better integrate the fastest-growing immigrant communities. 

Financial Literacy
The Office of Financial Empowerment at the Department of Consumer Affairs has launched several programs as part of One NYC One Nation. Mindful of linguistic and cultural competency and building the service-delivery capacity of immigrant serving community-based agencies, MOIA provided eight scholarships to community-based organizations to complete a CUNY consumer finance course and become OFE partner agencies, helping increase access to financial literacy. In partnership with DCA’s Office of Financial Empowerment, an immigrant banking practices survey will be conducted in target communities to better understand and improve financial skills.

Immigrant Heritage Week
Immigrant Heritage Week is an annual citywide celebration of the histories and traditions of the City’s diverse immigrant communities. Each Immigrant Heritage Week features a new artistic and educational medium, such as stories and film, to preserve the immigrant experience in New York City. The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs partners with City agencies, educational institutions, and private organizations which help ensure participation in this event to be held every April.

College Readiness and Parent Leader Training
In partnership with the city’s library systems, the College Board will train immigrant parent and youth leaders on college readiness, and organize college readiness events in the five boroughs.

Other Program Areas & Projects

Coffee Hour Conversations (Prepare New York)
Prepare New York and Coffee Hour Conversations show how religious diversity can be a source of strength and opportunity. The Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding is creating educational material for 500+ Coffee Hour Conversations across the city and for many more across the nation. With concrete data designed to inform but not inflame, their materials will enable the people of New York City to address such issues as hate speech, bullying, and violence directed against “the other.”

Mobile Consular IDs
The New York Immigration Coalition will be working with foreign consulates to issue consular IDs, foreign passports, and provide financial and college education.

Boy Scouts of New York
The Greater New York Councils of the Boy Scouts of America plan to expand Muslim scouting in New York City. Activities will include reaching out to existing Muslim troops and packs to encourage greater integration into the broader scouting community, developing training, and other supports to help existing Council staff and volunteers learn how to be more welcoming to Muslim youth, and facilitate the recruitment of more Muslim scouts.

Health & Wellness
This program area will work with partners such as the Health and Hospitals Corporation of New York to help immigrant communities and health care providers share information and develop strategies for closing health care and information gaps.

Youth Leadership Development
The youth leadership development program area will develop training programs to cultivate immigrant youth leadership skills and help them better engage their communities.

NYC One Nation brings together New York City’s philanthropic, political, and grassroots leadership to strengthen immigrant communities by collaborating and leveraging resources, programs, and events throughout the city.

Press Release
 April 11, 2011 - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Commissioner of Immigrant Affairs Fatima Shama, The New York Community Trust President Lorie Slutsky, and One Nation Foundation President Henry Izumizaki today kicked-off Immigrant Heritage Week with the launch of One NYC One Nation, a citywide civic engagement initiative for immigrant New Yorkers.

Read the press release
Read the New York Times article