Mission Statement: The Central Coast Citizenship Project provides immigration, naturalization, literacy, English language and new voter education integrated with leadership development in campaigns for social justice. The Citizenship Project provides organizational support to a network of self-governed grassroots groups that have developed through our organizing campaigns. More recently in response to growing interest in this agenda we provide technical assistance to other community organizations interested in developing similar projects. Over the years The Citizenship Project has recruited, trained and mobilized well over 2,000 immigrant community volunteers to help over 20,000 people become U.S. citizens and over 10,000 register to vote.
Narrative: Service learning was something that I was excited to do. It was really surprising to me that there were people that did not know about this requirement or did not know what it was. In high school, our district required us to do at least 60 hours of community service within the four years of high school. So, helping my community was nothing new to me, and I was excited to be able to jump back in. I grew up in Salinas, so I was familiar with the environment, and what is around me, but not really the community. I picked this place because I do not know much about my community, working at a nearby site gave me this opportunity. The service site is in east Salinas and the people that go there have similar jobs, working in agriculture. When I first started the student leader, Daisy, mentioned to us that they tend to get off work late and that it is important that we use of every minute possible when we are there. My parents have similar jobs, so I know the struggle of coming from home late and trying to do chores, making dinner and on top of that coming to a class, it can be very stressful. That is one of the reasons why it was important to use every minute. In the first half of the semester I worked with a lady that practiced whenever she could, but it would still be difficult for her to memorize the questions or the responses to the interview questions. I tried several different approaches until something worked. Towards the end of November, she had her citizenship exam and she passed it. Even though she did all of the hard work, I felt like I was an important part in her being able to pass her test. After completing my service there I see that people in this community want to get their citizenship, and that they are willing to put in the necessary time to study for it. Some want to make a difference in elections as well.