City Issues Request For Proposals For Immigrant Legal Support Centers

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City Issues Request For Proposals For Immigrant Legal Support Centers

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:August 8, 2024

CONTACT: Shaina Coronel, SCoronel@cityhall.nyc.gov

Over $18 Million in Funding Will go to Non-Profit Organizations that Apply and are Accepted

NEW YORK – The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) Commissioner Manuel Castro and the NYC Department of Social Services (DSS) Commissioner Molly Park have released two Request for Proposals (RFx) to establish 25 MOIA Immigration Legal Support Centers and MOIA Legal Technical Mentorship programs citywide.

“New York City is committed to supporting our immigrant communities with the resources they need to achieve the American Dream," said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. "By investing over $18 million into legal support centers and mentorship programs, we are ensuring that every immigrant New Yorker has access to high-quality legal assistance accessible in their native language right in their own neighborhoods. This initiative will empower immigrants — whether they arrived yesterday or have called the five boroughs home for decades — with the ability to navigate the complexities of our legal system with dignity and respect. We are proud to invest in their future and to strengthen the valuable immigrant population of our city.”

“This is one of the most significant initiatives of any city nationwide, to build out community rooted infrastructure to provide immigration legal services,” Mayor’s of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro. “We want to encourage all of our immigrant serving non-profits to consider applying for these funding opportunities to ensure we have a diverse pool of applicants geographically, linguistically, ethnically and so on.”

“Over the past two years the Adams Administration has made critical investments in foundational resettlement supports to help asylum seekers take the next steps in their journey and start to make New York City home,” said Department of Social Services Commissioner Molly Wasow Park. “We are proud to partner with the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs on this vital expansion of free legal services to address the immigration needs of our newest New Yorkers. These initiatives will help bolster the city’s tremendous response to this ongoing humanitarian crisis and strengthen pathways to stability for recently-arrived asylum seekers.”

The MOIA Immigration Legal Support Centers initiative will provide $250,000 per year for up to 25 immigrant-serving community-based organizations and nonprofit legal service providers. Through MOIA’s Immigration Legal Support Centers, immigrant New Yorkers will receive immigration legal assistance and information in their neighborhood and in their language.

MOIA’s Legal Technical Mentorship will fund experienced immigration legal service organizations seeking to support the growth, learning, and development of immigration legal support centers and other immigrant-serving organizations.

The term of the contracts will be three years, January 1, 2025, to December 31, 2027. There will also be an option of a three-year renewal from January 1, 2028 to December 31, 2030.

The primary goals of the MOIA Immigration Legal Support Centers are to provide immigrant New Yorkers with free, safe, high-quality, and culturally appropriate immigration legal services in their community and in their language (either through in-person or telephonic interpretation). A full description of the program’s purpose and goals are provided in the RFP.

The deadline for proposals is Tuesday, September 24, 2024, at 2:00 PM.

An information session, or Pre-Proposal Conference, will be held virtually on Wednesday, August 21st, at 10:00 AM.

To download the RFP, visit the websites below and click on the “download” link that appears adjacent to the RFP’s description.

MOIA Legal Support Centers RFx: https://passport.cityofnewyork.us/popup.aspx/en/bpm/process_manage_extranet/24524

MOIA Legal Technical Mentorship RFx: https://passport.cityofnewyork.us/popup.aspx/en/bpm/process_manage_extranet/24825

Interested organizations must create an account in PASSPort and obtain prequalification in order to apply. More information can be found here:

Creating a PASSPort account: https://www.nyc.gov/assets/mocs/downloads/PASSPort/learning-to-use-passport/RequestingaVendorPASSPortAccount.pdf

Prequalifying in PASSPort:

(English) https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/mocs/PQL-Demo.mp4

(Español) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8raiCplQ3SA

All questions, comments, and inquiries regarding these funding opportunities should be sent to rfpmoia@moia.nyc.gov.