Social Work and Legal Advocacy: A Collaborative Response to Trauma in Recently Arrived Immigrant Communities

Description

This workshop is designed to give social workers an understanding of recently arrived immigrant communities, including asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors, their legal needs, and how trauma manifests and influences their medical and mental health needs. The presenters are a licensed clinical social worker and an immigration lawyer who collaborate through an innovative medical-legal partnership to provide co-located mental health, pediatric care, and immigration legal advocacy for recently arrived immigrant children and families in the South Bronx. The workshop will explore interdisciplinary assessment methods to identify psychosocial needs of and effective mental health interventions for this population.

Credits: 4 CEs

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

Legal

• Basic understanding of lawful and unlawful immigration into the U.S.
• Understanding of legal implications of changes and fluctuation in immigration law and policy over the last four years
• Examining the effect in the community of anti-immigration policy and rhetoric
• Psychosocial, legal, and financial challenges during the immigration process
• Understanding the role social workers can play as advocates in the immigration process
• The importance of working in interdisciplinary legal, medical, and mental health teams
• Referrals: who to refer, when to refer, and where to refer to immigration lawyers

Mental Health

• Review of mental health challenges and needs present in immigrant, particularly recently arrived, children and families
• Learn how and why to identify unaccompanied immigrant children (UIC) and asylum-seeking families
• Understand the complexity of trauma sources and their manifestation in this population
• Exploration of assessment methods to identify psychosocial needs of and effective mental health interventions for this population
• Discover how our program has addressed this population’s ever-increasing needs due to COVID19

Tuition

Registration Fee: $90
Alumni, Adjuncts, Field Instructors Rate: $65
AU School of Social Work Student Rate: FREE

Register here!

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Faculty Bio

Lisa Pineda, LCSW-R is a senior-level psychotherapist at Montefiore Bronx Health Collective where she is also the Mental Health Director of Terra Firma, a nationally-recognized medical-legal partnership that provides co-located medical, mental health, legal, and enrichment services to unaccompanied immigrant children and asylum-seeking families. Lisa specializes in child and adolescent mental health, particularly traumatic stress resulting from interpersonal trauma. Previously working in a Child Advocacy Center model, she also has expertise in dealing within the child welfare system. Lisa is trained and provides clinical supervision in several trauma-focused evidence-based therapeutic interventions, including TF-CBT, AF-CBT, SPARCS, CPP, and PSB-CBT. Lisa’s present work with Hispanic immigrant population, including unaccompanied children, is the culmination of over 10 years of experience contributing to the research and refining of therapeutic interventions with this population. Lisa is the co-author of “Working with parents and children separated at the border: Examining the impact of the Zero Tolerance policy and beyond,” Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma (2019). Lisa earned her MSW from Adelphi University, where she conducted research with Hispanic immigrant youth and their families, addressing mental health outcomes.

Jodi Ziesemer is the Director of the New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)’s Immigrant Protection Unit. Jodi leads a large team of innovative and passionate immigration advocates. In addition to overseeing staff, she works with senior management to establish and implement a strategic vision for the unit, undertakes the management and reporting on grants and deliverables, and develops effective programs to meet client needs. Prior to joining NYLAG, Jodi was a supervising attorney at Catholic Charities in their Unaccompanied Minors Program. In that position, Jodi coordinated representation of recently arrived unaccompanied immigrant children and oversaw a team of attorneys who provide services to immigrant youth detained with the Office of Refugee Resettlement. In addition, she has worked for the past ten years representing a wide variety of immigrants in front of the Executive Office of Immigration Review (Immigration Court) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Prior to graduating summa cum laude from New York Law School, Jodi worked as a Board of Immigration Appeals representative for the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago and as a paralegal at Fitzgerald and Company, LLC in Boston. During her fifteen years in immigration law, Jodi has worked on a range of projects including anti-human trafficking initiatives, naturalization drives, pro bono asylum clinics, innovative representation projects for unaccompanied minors and victims of violent crime. Jodi holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Grinnell College and a Master’s in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a J.D. from New York Law School. Jodi served as an adjunct professor at St. John’s University and she co-authored an article for the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal entitled, “The Right to Have Rights: Loss of Citizenship, Asylum, and Constitutional Principles.” (Vol 30, No 3, Spring 2016).

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Adelphi University School of Social Work is an approved provider for continuing education credits for the following:

• Social Workers
• LMHC
• LMFT
• CASAC Renewal
• Psychology
• LCAT

Successful completion for the award of approved continuing education credits requires attendance at the entire training/workshop and submission of a completed evaluation form.

See full credentialing information and CEUs

Cancellation Policy

Unfortunately, we cannot provide refunds for cancellations made seven working days or fewer before the event for any reason—or for no-shows. We can provide credit towards a future workshop up to 24 hours before the event. After that, no credit will be issued.

Accessibility Statement

The Student Access Office ensures equal access to all of Adelphi University’s programs, services and facilities for students with documented needs. Through assistance, advocacy and reasonable accommodations, the office provides an accessible and supportive campus environment.

The Student Access Office provides cost-free assistance and services that are tailored to meet the needs of individuals based on their specific, appropriately documented needs, while preserving Adelphi’s academic integrity and high standards of academic expectations and performance.

If you are a student with a documented disability and wish to request accommodation services, please submit a Petition for Reasonable Accommodations form along with the required information as detailed in the Guidelines for Documentation.

Please be aware that all decisions regarding accommodations and equal access are made in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and prevailing University Policy.

For further information, please contact the Student Access Office at 516.877.3806 or sao@adelphi.edu.