Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

The funds will be divided between the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and Jewish Family and Children's Services. It will supplement current local efforts aimed at helping legal immigrants and refugees attain citizenship. Many of them are elderly and disabled and at risk of losing benefits as a result of the passage of last year's welfare reform law.

"This is a wonderful example of the way our community was able to address and respond to an immediate and compelling need," said Susan Folkman, chair of the JCF's planning and allocations committee.

The funds are part of a $1.3 million grant received by the Council of Jewish Federations from the Emma Lazarus Fund of the Open Society Institute to assist emigres through naturalization. The JCF will use the funding to bolster services in two areas: English language instruction provided by the JCC of S.F. and citizenship test preparation and legal consultation offered by JFCS.

At the JCC, older adults, unable to take advantage of more intensive programs available at community colleges, benefit from small class sizes, a slower pace and special teaching methods. However, until now, the JCC only had funding for two classes a week, or a total of three hours of instruction, and no funding for summer sessions. The funding enables the JCC to add a third class period.

"With our time and money limitations, it felt like our students were taking one step forward and two steps back," said Nate Levine, the JCC's executive director. "Now, with this latest grant, we're able to add an additional hour and a half per week, which we're all very excited about."

The additional class period will make a big difference, instructors say.

"Not only will it speed the language acquisition process," said one teacher, "it will also build greater confidence in the written and spoken word that will enable students to approach the naturalization process and testing with skill and self-assurance."

Another teacher said the English training in the classes is "directly applicable to successful completion of the citizenship process. Only those individuals who have attained a certain level of knowledge of written and oral English are prepared to enter the application and preparation process."

When they complete the JCC's English classes, emigres go to JFCS to participate in the recently developed Model Citizenship Program. The program was created several years ago to meet the growing need for citizenship preparation among refugees from the former Soviet Union.

Since that time, citizenship services provided by the emigre program have evolved dramatically from a small- scale service component — in which a part-time immigration attorney assisted 200 future citizens — to a full-scale, comprehensive citizenship program serving more than 2,000.

Now, with the infusion of grant money, the JFCS is expanding its citizenship program to assist more people. JFCS will develop additional off-site services, provide more services to the homebound, expand its legal services to target the elderly and disabled, and coordinate services with other providers as part of a regional network.

JFCS is also targeting older emigres, ages 55 to 65, who have lived in this country five years or more and who have not yet acquired citizenship. Many have limited English skills and/or disabling health conditions.

The JCF is one of 15 nationwide federations to receive funding for naturalization services and programs aiding thousands of at-risk refugees and legal immigrants scheduled to lose benefits under the welfare reform legislation.