Download the event presentation here: 2GI W2 PPT Final
During the second of our four-part Working Practices series speakers shared replicable, creative strategies they have used to deliver 2Gen services to families, youth and children with immigrant status issues.
Demonstrating the range of issues that can affect families in which some are citizens or permanent residents and others lack formal documentation, the Migration Policy Institute estimates that at least 14.4 million individuals in the United States live in mixed-status families that were excluded from initial 2020 COVID-19 stimulus payments.
Watch the video recording to hear program staff from Chicago Commons, On the Move, and the Napa Valley Community Foundation share stories on making sure all family members are supported, healthy, and feel welcome and safe in their place. Learn strategies that build staff capacity and cross-organization collaboration to help undocumented customers, and ways to access emergency funding for immigrant families.
Our Moderator
Karen Murrell, President, Higher Heights Consulting
Karen is a national consultant who provides technical assistance to develop programs, products, and services that improve family well-being. Her recent efforts to support family well-being through 2Gen approaches include: designing national peer learning activities to advance practitioner knowledge, developing 2Gen materials and resources, and providing technical assistance to organizations. Karen previously served as an instructor at Duke University’s Global Leadership Academy in Shanghai, a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation, Senior Director at the Fannie Mae Foundation and she is co-author of You and Your Money: A No Stress Guide to Becoming Financially Fit.
Our Speakers
Vikki Rompala, Vice-President of the Family Hub, Chicago Commons
Vikki is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 20 years of experience working in social service, child welfare, and health settings. She has helped develop programs with staff and the community in Chicago and co-chaired a Partnering with Youth and Families Committee for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network where she partnered with families and youth to elevate their voice at organizational, local, state, and federal levels for change. As a Peer Reviewer for the Council of Accreditation, Vikki helps shape and provide training on family systems, continuous quality improvement, and trauma-informed education and interventions. She received her education from University of Maryland with a master’s in social work with a focus on Clinical and Community Organizing and her PhD training from University of Illinois at Chicago with a focus on program evaluation and public policy.
Susana Garcia, Neighborhood Initiative Program Director, On the Move
Susana leads The Neighborhood Initiative at On The Move, a nonprofit dedicated to providing support and services to underserved populations in and around Napa Valley, California. At the age of two, Susana immigrated to the United States with her family from Jalisco, Mexico. Experiencing first-hand the struggles that immigrant families face, she is a passionate and committed leader ready to open doors and create opportunities for families to thrive. In her 10+ years with On The Move, she has held various roles helping the organization achieve its mission and honing her expertise in program development, community outreach and engagement. Susana has also built and managed from the ground up successful programs during multiple state of emergencies, including launching the Napa Fire Recovery Center in 2017, and most recently, a County-wide Emergency Financial Assistance Program for families impacted by COVID-19.
Julia DeNatale, Vice President of Community Impact, Napa Valley Community Foundation
Julia oversees the Community Foundation’s grantmaking, including donor-recommended, discretionary, designated, endowed and scholarship portfolios and community impact grantmaking in the areas of investing in youth, fighting poverty and championing community. Julia leads the Foundation’s community initiatives including One Napa Valley, which incubated civic engagement and immigrant legal services in Napa County nine years ago, and has since provided nearly 9,000 locals with free legal consultations. Her work also includes the recently launched NapaSonoma ADU Center, which aims to create more affordable housing inventory by helping homeowners build and rent Accessory Dwelling Units as well as relief, response and recovery efforts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfire prevention and preparedness efforts. Prior to joining Napa Valley Community Foundation, Julia was Director of Development and Community Education at Wolfe Center, a nonprofit behavioral health organization in Napa.
Policy Discussion
Margie McHugh, Director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy at the Migration Policy Institute
The Migration Policy Institute’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy is is a national hub for leaders in government, community affairs, business and academia to obtain the insights and knowledge they need to respond to the challenges and opportunities that today’s high rates of immigration pose for communities across the United States. It provides in-depth research, policy analysis, technical assistance, training and information resource services on a broad range of immigrant integration issues. Margie’s work focuses on education quality and access issues for immigrants and their children from early childhood through K-12 and adult, post-secondary and workforce skills programs. She also leads the Center’s work seeking a more coordinated federal response to immigrant integration needs and impacts, and more workable systems for recognition of the education and work experience immigrants bring with them to the United States.
About the Spreading and Adapting 2Gen Working Practice Series
As 2020 unfolded with the COVID-19 pandemic, a weakened economy and increasing anti-immigrant rhetoric, the need for effective design and delivery of 2Gen services grew — and nonprofit organizations responded with quick thinking and action, inventiveness, and adaptation. Hosted by the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group in partnership with the Migration Policy Institute and Ascend at the Aspen Institute, this four-part webinar series will unpack the nuts and bolts of creative strategies that nonprofit organizations have implemented to deliver 2Gen services to immigrant families, youth and children. These events are open to anyone interested in learning more about work with immigrant families, and no prior 2Gen knowledge or experience is necessary. Register for each event here.
