International Services Center

International Services Center
1859 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115

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History

The International Services Center (ISC), formerly Nationalities Services Center, launched in 1954 when the Citizens’ Bureau and the International Institute of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) consolidated to form one nonprofit organization to serve Cleveland’s immigrant community. Founders dedicated the center to providing immigration and naturalization technical assistance and fostering positive relations between foreign-born and native citizens.

The history behind ISC began in 1911 when the New York YWCA established the International Institute for the protection and welfare of immigrant girls. Predators considered these women easy targets because they were unfamiliar with the culture and rarely spoke English. The predators intercepted women at rail and train stations and offered women help with finding homes, jobs or relatives, but then tricked them into prostitution or slavery.

In 1917, the Cleveland YWCA’s Department of Immigration opened its own International Institute. Initially, the center served Slovenes, Croatians, Serbs and Italians that settled in the Collinwood area.

By 1920, the institute employed 14 nationality workers operating in 2 neighborhood centers. Often, employees traveled to settlements, libraries, churches, clients' homes and anywhere else immigrants converged to provide English classes where and when they were needed.

International Institute employees taught English, served as translators, helped immigrants with personal problems and sponsored nationality clubs to encourage "a distinct national consciousness." The institute also provided Greater Cleveland residents with information and understanding for the city's various ethnic groups.

The Citizens Bureau, one of the two components that would become ISC, was a venture of the Americanization Committee of the Mayor’s Advisory War Committee. Financed by the draft board from 1917- 1919, the Americanization committee served both board officials and immigrants. It provided immigrants with information about the draft, processing exemption claims and affidavits. In 1917, the Committee began naturalization classes and taught 300 students its first year. When the War Committee folded in 1919, one year after the end of World War I, the Americanization Committee became the Americanization Information Bureau. Because the Welfare Foundation had funded the Americanization Information Bureau, it became a member of that organization in 1921. In 1922, the Americanization Information Bureau again changed its name, this time to the Citizens Bureau.

Between 1917-1921, the Citizens Bureau provided a variety of assistance to 100,000 immigrants and taught 15,000 naturalization classes.

After World War II, demand for those seeking help with naturalization declined, but the need for assisting those citizens who wanted to immigrate friends and relatives to the U.S. increased. In 1949, a Welfare Federation investigation determined that the Citizens Bureau and the International Institute offered similar services. It recommended a merger, which took effect in 1954. The new organization, Nationalities Services Center, continued to provide the services of its predecessors, but also initiated new programs. One of those services, publicizing the contributions of foreign-born citizens, helped to increase positive public opinion for immigrants.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the Nationalities Services Center began assisting new immigrant groups, including those from Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. It also provided help to Hungarian and Cuban political exiles in the 1950s and 1960s, and to Lebanese and Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s.

In 1955, 1961, 1974 and 1981, the Nationalities Services Center compiled reference guides to local nationality groups. The guides provided regional businesses, news outlets and schools with useful references for researching and serving the diverse population. In 1962, the Nationalities Services Center established the annual All Nations Festival to celebrate all the diverse cultures and nationalities. In 1974, it created the Language Bank, a 24-hour translation service. By the mid-1970s, the center helped more than 9,000 people annually, with an annual budget of $119,000.

To foster intercultural and interracial exchange, the center inaugurated the first annual Holiday Folk Festival in November of 1989 at the Palace Theater in Playhouse Square.

The center adopted the International Services Center name in 1994 when it served an annual average of 20,000 clients and operated on a $700,000 budget. That same year, the U.S. Justice Department had granted the center with accreditation, which allowed it to represent clients before the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The U.S. Department of State rated the ISC program its highest ranking, “commendable.” The center also became the primary Refugee Resettlement Agency in northern Ohio.

Today, the International Services Center is a United Way member agency and it coordinates all aspects of transitioning to an American culture. Services include English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), job counseling and training, and both electronic and ink-rolled fingerprinting for non-immigration purposes. Regional courts, hospitals, schools and government offices rely on its Language Bank for translation services.

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