Molly Makrogianis is the English as a Second Language (ESOL) Coordinator at Thomas Crane Public Library in Quincy, Massachusetts.
Can you share how long you’ve been connected to Project Citizenship? What has the partnership been like?
Our library has been connected to Project Citizenship since 2017 when we first learned of the organization’s very helpful legal services! Our library offers citizenship preparation courses, but not application assistance. We were really happy to discover a reliable (and free!) resource to refer our patrons to. Initially, we referred people to Boston Workshops for application services, and then were very excited to host our first Quincy Workshop at the library in 2018.
Can you share about how Project Citizenship’s services have helped your constituents?
Project Citizenship’s services have been invaluable to our patrons, staff and volunteer citizenship teachers. Prior to working with PC, we fielded lots of questions from students in our classes regarding their applications, as well as notices received from USCIS. We were not able to provide legal advice or explanations so connecting with Project Citizenship really fulfilled a significant missing piece in our efforts to assist our patrons with the entirety of the citizenship application and preparation process. Project Citizenship staff has always been very responsive and thorough to all of our inquiries. We always highly encourage our students and patrons to utilize the services!
What have the Quincy workshops been like? Can you tell us about the atmosphere in the room?
The Quincy workshops are like a bustling hive of productive, feel-good energy. In what looks like an awesome effort to assist as many clients as possible… there is a lot of activity in the room! Volunteers and staff are very on-the-ball, assisting clients and directing them through well-organized stations. I have always been so impressed by how easy Project Citizenship makes it to host a workshop. The team comes in fully prepared and is very efficient in the entire process from set-up to clean-up. And it’s nice to see clients leave smiling with a reassured look on their faces. Our library really enjoys hosting the workshops!