2022 began at the peak of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. Yet with two years of pandemic-era remote work expertise, CIANA didn’t miss a beat in ensuring our clients were healthy and able to continue their journey towards integration and advancement.
Thanks to our dedicated staff and volunteers, we’ve served our immigrant families in new and innovative ways; we’ve fought for immigrants like we never have before; and we’ve maintained a strong, consistent presence in their communities.
Check out the photos below that show what made 2022 such a powerful year for CIANA and our community:
The first week of January, at the height of the Omicron outbreak, we went to Jackson Heights for a Test and Trace Day of Action to make sure the community was getting their booster shots and getting tested.
Our Outreach team braved the February cold to promote COVID vaccines for adults and children and to bring citywide infection rates back down.
Warmer weather in March allowed us to host our first Day of Action at our office since October, where we distributed over 300 at-home COVID test kits. For most of our staff, it was the first time in months seeing one another as well as our clients.
We traveled to Albany in April to lobby for the AAPI Equity Budget, which aimed to fund AAPI-serving CBOs. $20 million was granted in the final budget as a result of our efforts.
Whether it was demanding educational access for newly-arrived youth, calling for our City’s budget to reflect its diverse immigrant population, or seeking to end collusion between ICE and local police through the New York for All Act, we spent May calling for systemic change to the treatment of immigrants in New York.
By the time the Test and Trace Corps ended in June, CIANA had given out hundreds of COVID tests, thousands of face coverings, and educated tens of thousands of community members on how they can stop the spread of COVID-19.
In July we partnered with TechFIN to give newly refurbished computers to 50 of our client families and help bridge the digital divide, which disproportionately impacts new Americans.
We had the privilege to hear Mayor Eric Adams express his support for health coverage for all New Yorkers, regardless of immigration status or ability to pay. In that spirit, we traveled to Corona throughout August to enroll its large undocumented population in NYC Care, a healthcare plan for undocumented New Yorkers. CIANA has helped enroll close to 400 community members in NYC Care.
Our efforts over the past year to close equity gaps in public health were recognized at a ceremony in September at Elmhurst Hospital.
We gave out dozens of books to kids in our community throughout October, culminating in a mini-Halloween celebration at the end of the month.
In November, CIANA went to school! We presented CIANA’s services to parents at elementary and high schools across Queens, and even got to attend P.S. 171’s annual Fall Festival here in Astoria just before Thanksgiving.
This December, we’ve met with new asylum seekers at resource fairs and at their hotel shelters to identify their needs and enroll them in public benefits currently available to them.
As the year winds down and a new one waits around the corner, we hope to strengthen our partnerships, become better allies, and be a beacon of support for our city’s most in-need new immigrant populations.
We wish everyone a happy and healthy new year!