ABSTRACTWe conducted a community-based study to analyze outcomes of and community responses to six large-scale immigration worksite raids by conducting semi-structured interviews with individuals who responded to these raids. Participants (n = 77) represented four primary sectors: faith, advocacy, education, and law. Analyses show that large-scale immigration worksite raids frequently prompt family reorganization and generally impact men and women differently, as men are predominantly detained while women and children are generally left behind. Findings indicate a need for these raids to be eliminated completely, although they also reinforce the importance of implementing damage-mitigation strategies such as trauma-informed social services, legal guardianship clinics to facilitate guardianship paperwork, and policy changes to address family separation.KEYWORDS: Community-based researchcommunity-based organizationsimmigrantslatino communitystrong communitiesuniversity-community collaborations AcknowledgmentsWe acknowledge the contributions of mixed-status community members and allies who advocate against immigration enforcement every day, especially the new additions to these families born during the period of this study, including Vera Novak.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementBecause the dataset contains sensitive qualitative information, it is not available publicly at this time.Additional informationFundingThis project was funded by grants from: The University of Michigan Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) and the Documenting Criminalization and Confinement Research Initiative of the University of Michigan Carceral State Project and pilot funding from the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center for Rural Health, Cooperative Agreement Number, DP005021-01;University of Michigan Carceral State Project - Documenting Criminalization and Confinement
This project increased awareness about issues of violence to youth, their communities, and policy makers through the technique of photovoice and its translation into photo exhibitions and other community events. Youth participants learned photography skills, engaged in critical communal discussions about important issues affecting their health, wrote reflective stories about their photos, and engaged in policy change efforts. Their photos depict the need to address economic devastation and built environment degradation to prevent violence in their communities. Youth presented policy makers and community leaders with an "insider's perspective" of the issues facing their communities, with the hope of promoting policy change.
Leisy J. Abrego and Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales (eds.), We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2020, $26.95). Pp. 264. isbn 978 1 4780 1083 8. - Volume 55 Issue 5
Early life adversity can significantly impact child development and health outcomes throughout the life course. With the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating preexisting and introducing new sources of toxic stress, social programs that foster resilience are more necessary now than ever. The Helping Us Grow Stronger (HUGS/Abrazos) program fills a crucial need for protective buffers during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has escalated toxic stressors affecting pregnant women and families with young children. HUGS/Abrazos combines patient navigation, behavioral health support, and innovative tools to ameliorate these heightened toxic stressors. We used a mixed-methods approach, guided by the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework, to evaluate the implementation of the HUGS/Abrazos program at Massachusetts General Hospital from 6/30/2020–8/31/2021. Results of the quality improvement evaluation revealed that the program was widely adopted across the hospital and 392 unique families were referred to the program. The referred patients were representative of the communities in Massachusetts disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, 79% of referred patients followed up with the initial referral, with sustained high participation rates throughout the program course; and they were provided with an average of four community resource referrals. Adoption and implementation of the key components in HUGS/Abrazos were found to be appropriate and acceptable. Furthermore, the implemented program remained consistent to the original design. Overall, HUGS/Abrazos was well adopted as an emergency relief program with strong post-COVID-19 applicability to ameliorate continuing toxic stressors while decreasing burden on the health system.
