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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Lewie Briggs, Senior Staff Attorney at TakeRoot Justice
5:11:25
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Lewie Briggs, Senior Staff Attorney at TakeRoot Justice, testifies about concerns regarding Immigrant Opportunities Initiative (IOI) funding. He expresses gratitude for the City Council's advocacy and describes TakeRoot Justice's work with community-based organizations.
- Funding for IOI has remained stagnant since 2019, not accounting for inflation or cost of living adjustments
- The contract renewal has been pushed from FY2026 to FY2027
- Proposed changes to the new contract would remove community outreach, education, and limited scope services from the scope of work
Lewie Briggs
5:11:25
Thank you, chair.
5:11:26
Thank you, counsel, for the opportunity to testify today.
5:11:29
My name is Louis Briggs.
5:11:31
I'm a senior staff attorney at Take Root Justice.
5:11:34
We join in the resounding chorus of New Yorkers who, after listening to today with a fresh sigh of relief, say thank God for City Council.
5:11:46
We're so appreciative of your advocacy and your work.
5:11:50
At Take Root Justice, we work in direct partnership with community based organizations who are doing the critical work in New York City neighborhoods.
5:11:58
We support them with legal advocacy and policy and research support.
5:12:04
Some of our community partners are IDCAR and Woodside, Damayan Migrant Workers Association and Hell's Kitchen, Daces Rising Up and Moving in Jackson Heights, and Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees in Flatbush.
5:12:15
We are also the lead organization on the CILEC consortium, which is the citywide immigrant legal empowerment collaborative, who receives funding from Immigrant Opportunities Initiative Funds, IOI.
5:12:29
My comments today are going to focus on IOI funding.
5:12:33
We have three concerns that I wanted to raise.
5:12:35
The first is that we have been receiving the same amount of funding since 2019.
5:12:41
The contract is up for renewal.
5:12:43
It was fiscal year 'twenty six.
5:12:45
It's now been pushed to fiscal year 'twenty seven.
5:12:49
But service providers have had to subsidize the work that they've been asked to do because the grant is not accounting for cost of living adjustments and inflation.
5:13:02
And the second thing that it does not account over the course of the years of the contract doesn't account for any increases.
5:13:11
Our third concern is that the new proposed draft for the next contract takes out, it removes community outreach and education from as well as limited scope services from the scope of work of the contract.
5:13:27
We can say in the first two months of the Trump administration and in the past three weeks alone, A large amount of the work that we have done is community outreach and education, and that's what's being asked of us from community based organizations, and we've been providing it.
5:13:41
Unfortunately, that would no longer be funding under the terms of the new contract.
5:13:45
So those are our three concerns, and we urge the council to urge the administration to change those proposed terms.
5:13:51
Thank you.