Community Perspectives on Immigrant Families Access to Services during a Pandemic (cultural)

*cultural

This is a 2.0 hour session.

This presentation aims to provide the perspectives of community agency leaders, local and state government officials, on immigrants’ access to services prior and during the health crisis in Do�a Ana County and borderlands. Thoughts from stakeholders on barriers and facilitators to resources, and existing COVID related policy, local, state, and federal levels, will be discussed. This presentation offers insight into how community leaders responded at local and county levels to address the needs and challenges experienced by immigrant and mixed status families who were intentionally excluded from the federal stimulus package. In recognizing key stakeholders' views and understandings of the existing and exacerbated service gaps, this presentation offers recommendations and strategies for social workers and other social services practitioners to implement in practice, and advocate through policy COVID-19 recovery efforts.

Presented by:

Anayeli Lopez, PhD, MSW, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, NM and she is a faculty affiliate of the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare. Dr. Lopez received dual Ph.D. degrees ins Social Welfare from Boston College and ITESO-Jesuit University of Guadalajara in 2009. During her doctoral studies she was the recipient of the Fellowship in International Social Welfare at Boston College-ITESO. Dr. Lopez practiced social work in Indiana, where she developed educational interventions, conducted outreach, and developed partnerships between local schools, community leaders, and Latino immigrant families to increase awareness and access to higher education. Dr. Lopez also holds several years of experience conducting research on Latino immigrant families and children. Her research focuses on the impact of immigration enforcement on the well-being of immigrant families and children and addressing their service needs.

Megan Finno-Velasquez, PhD, MSW, is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Center on Immigration and Child Welfare in the School of Social Work at New Mexico State University, in Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Finno-Velasquez has spent the past 14 years working at the intersection of child welfare and immigration issues, as a child welfare practitioner, administrator, and researcher. Her research centers around the impact of immigration policy on child welfare system experiences, culturally competent maltreatment prevention strategies, and improving child welfare service system response to the needs of immigrant families. In 2019, Dr. Finno-Velasquez was appointed Director of Immigration Affairs for the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department in a position split with her professorship at NMSU, where she is working to build an immigration unit to improve policies and practices to support immigrant and refugee children along the Mexico border and throughout the state. Dr. Finno-Velasquez received her PhD from the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work.

Marianna Corkill is a Graduate Research Assistant and a student pursuing a Master in Social Work from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree in Global Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and a Certificate in Environmental Studies from San Diego State University in 2012, she worked with Latino communities along the California – Mexico border. She taught environmental education to underserved and bilingual youth, connected low-income communities to municipal water and energy-saving programs, and advocated for affordable and sustainable public transportation. In 2016, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama. She worked two years organizing environmental efforts in a 600-person sustenance farming town, followed by providing technical and cultural support to incoming volunteers. Upon returning to the U.S., she began her MSW track as a Paul D. Coverdell Fellow.

Sophia Sepp is a graduate of the dual Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health program at New Mexico State University. She received a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service with a focus on international politics at Georgetown University in 2014. Following her graduation, she moved to Las Cruces, NM to participate in a yearlong service program with Border Servant Corps (BSC), serving at Jardin de los Ni�os, which provides early childhood education and supportive services to children and their families who are experiencing homelessness. Following her year of service, she became the Program Coordinator for the Border Servant Corps yearlong program. Upon graduating with a dual degree in social work and public health, she worked as an In-Home Services Practitioner with NM CYFD. She now serves as the CICW's full-time program manager, coordinating and managing the Center's ongoing projects and providing administrative support.

2.0 Cultural CEU's

NASW Member- $40
Non-Member- $60