‘This is something that I love’: Civic educators strengthen their passion with local partnerships
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By Jillian Clark, HoustonEndowment.org contributor
Houston-area resident Frida Aguirre is no stranger to the classroom; she’s taught ESL and GED classes for years. Recently, she shifted her expertise to helping lawful permanent residents become U.S. citizens and joined a growing network of citizenship educators supported by the nonprofit USAHello(opens in new window).
“This is something that I love—to help people, to teach,” said Aguirre.
Frida Aguirre
USAHello and Aguirre are part of a broad, coordinated effort that has made Houston a national leader in naturalization, with more citizenship applicants than any U.S. metro area. In the past, organizations supporting aspiring citizens often operated independently. Today, they are increasingly connected, sharing best practices, aligning their efforts, and expanding access to quality services across the region.
That includes USAHello’s Houston Alliance for Citizenship Educators(opens in new window), a professional development program that aims to standardize the curriculum and resources available to educators helping lawful permanent residents on their path to citizenship. Supported by Houston Endowment, the program fosters collaboration among nonprofit service providers.
“When we began this work, we heard from community partners that there wasn’t standard training available for civics instructors. Nonprofits, churches, and other providers were largely on their own to develop and update their curricula,” said Gislaine Williams, Houston Endowment program officer. “USAHello’s training program is helping change that by ensuring access to high-quality instruction—whether the instructor is a full-time nonprofit staff member or a volunteer supporting residents through the naturalization process.”
Since its initial pilot of 175 educators, the alliance has grown to include more than 250 educators. As part of the group, they have access to free, self-paced online classes and a peer cohort—all tools they can use to help the more than 300,000 eligible-to-naturalize lawful permanent residents in Houston achieve citizenship.
For Aguirre, these resources include innovative strategies that can make civic education approachable to eligible community members looking to pass their citizenship test.
“I use more guided practice and mock interview-style questions in my lessons, which has made a big difference in how confident my students feel. I’ve noticed that when I slow down the content and connect it to their everyday lives, they participate more and retain the information better,” Aguirre said.
A unique position: Educating the educators
USAHello hosts a vast online citizenship resource hub in 22 languages—everything from practice citizenship tests to information about how to fill out the application, find financial and legal support, or access English classes online. With this robust library available to the public, the organization is uniquely positioned to bolster resources for citizenship educators.
The standardized training and resources also help to combat a significant community challenge: misinformation. A rapidly changing landscape and high social media engagement compound the complexity of navigating the path to citizenship, said Luis A. Garcia-Alvarez, USAHello’s senior community engagement advisor.
“Social media plays a huge role in communication. Some people are watching reels more than they watch the news,” he said. “As citizenship educators, we have the responsibility to not only provide high-quality citizenship classes, but to be informed and updated so we can provide accurate information. By accessing the services that USAHello provides, it helps to fill those gaps of information, advice, or guidance that are needed.”
Leaning on partnerships
And when USAHello can’t provide direct assistance, the organization taps into the strong ties it has with its fellow service providers.
“Many educators and organizations were working by themselves. With this [Houston Alliance for Citizenship Educators] initiative, we bring them together every six weeks, and now I have seen new alliances, new partnerships,” said Garcia-Alvarez. These alliances, he says, have bolstered the confidence of many educators.
Among them is Aguirre, who shared her previous anxiety about giving her students inaccurate or confusing information. When a recent citizenship ceremony was cancelled, her students began to worry that the cancellation would impact their own cases. Through USAHello’s partnership with Houston Volunteer Lawyers, Aguirre was able to get answers for her students quickly.
“At first, I was afraid of not knowing what to say. I was afraid of saying ‘I don’t know’,” she said. “Now I can say, I’m going to check this and share the correct information with you later.”
These partnerships have yielded impressive results for the Houston community—between fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Houston’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office saw a 16.9% increase in citizenship applications.
“Through the support of USAHello and local partners, more eligible residents are successfully navigating the path to citizenship and accessing the opportunities that come with it,” said Williams “This is a truly collaborative effort that is changing the lives of thousands of individuals and helping make our community stronger.”
Garcia-Alvarez said he would have benefited from more coordinated resources on his own journey to citizenship almost 20 years ago.
“When I applied for my citizenship, I did everything by myself—information on the internet was limited and at the end it was complex because I did everything,” said Garcia-Alvarez. “Having something like USAHello would have allowed me to go through the process easier.”
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