Strengthening Border Families: Community and Policy Responses to Serving Immigrant Families with Young Children in Doña Ana County, NM

This report details the results and recommendations of the first phase of a community-based participatory research project which aimed to explore the accessibility and quality of services as well as barriers and facilitators to service receipt among immigrant families with young children in the New Mexico borderlands

Strengthening Border Families: Data Highlights from Interviews & Focus Groups With Immigrant Caregivers

This report details key findings of the third phase of a multiphase mixed-methods study that aims to: 1) understand the accessibility and quality of services for immigrant families with young children in Doña Ana County both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) identify barriers and facilitators to service access for these families; and 3) uplift community-informed practice and policy solutions to improve equity in access to key supportive services for immigrant families with young children in southern New Mexico and across the state

Strengthening Border Families: Frontline Practitioner Perspectives on Service Access for Immigrant Families with Young Children in Doña Ana County, NM

In recent years, federal immigration and public benefits policies with implications for immigrant families in the U.S. have been extraordinarily restrictive and punitive. These policies have exacerbated a climate of fear and vulnerability for immigrant families, while also creating significant barriers to service access and eligibility for immigrant families, particularly those services that are important for child health and wellbeing. The borderlands of New Mexico are one of the most impoverished areas of the country, where the day-to-day experiences of immigrant children and families are impacted by complex border policies and dynamics that restrict access to needed supports.

Challenges to Family Unity and Opportunities for Promoting Child Welfare in an Increasingly Punitive Immigration Landscape

This paper describes specific challenges to family unity and child welfare among children in immigrant families resulting from immigration enforcement. Surges in immigration activity over the past decade have resulted in family economic hardship, psychological trauma to children, and difficulty accessing social services. Children whose parents are detained/deported are at risk of unnecessarily entering the child welfare system, and encounter significant barriers to family reunification. In recent months, the scope of enforcement priorities that previously safeguarded many parents now target a much larger group of immigrants for deportation, increasingly disregarding the needs of children. Immigration raids have terrorized communities across the country, and repercussions are being felt by the child welfare system and social service providers. Within an anti-immigrant political climate, there is a desperate need for social workers to lead initiatives to respond to immigrants’ needs. Strategies include: (1) development of social work expertise in working with immigrants; (2) cross-systems and cross-disciplinary collaborations; (3) leveraging existing resources and supports; (4) documentation/collection of data; and (5) focused advocacy efforts

Community Informant Explanations for Unusual Neighborhood Rates of Child Maltreatment Reports

This study explored perceptions of community informants on socioenvironmental factors that explain why rates of child maltreatment reporting are different in neighborhoods with similar population characteristics. This study used data from the SoCal Neighborhoods and Child Welfare study, a multiphase, mixed-methods study of neighborhoods in Los Angeles and San Diego counties. Semistructured qualitative interviews with key informants (N = 28) in 22 census tracts explored factors that account for differences in maltreatment rates among sociodemographically similar neighborhoods. Thematic content analysis revealed three themes regarding neighborhood contributors to maltreatment behaviors and reporting: (a) community norms and values, (b) community resources and providers, and (c) housing dynamics and built environment. Findings indicate complexity in forces that affect maltreatment behavior and reporting. Adding to research on neighborhood social dynamics and child maltreatment, findings suggest that composite indicators of maltreatment within neighborhoods are affected by maltreatment behaviors and the definition, recognition, and reporting of maltreatment

Measuring Use of Research Evidence: The Structured Interview for Evidence Use.

ObjectivesThis article describes the Standard Interview for Evidence Use (SIEU), a measure to assess the level of engagement in acquiring, evaluating, and applying research evidence in health and social service settings.MethodThree scales measuring input, process, and output of research evidence and eight subscales were identified using principal axis factor analysis and parallel analysis of data collected from 202 state and county child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems leaders.ResultsThe SIEU scales and subscales demonstrate strong internal consistency as well as convergent and discriminant validity.ConclusionsThe SIEU is easy to use and can be administered as a complete scale or as three smaller scales to separately examine evidence in acquisition, evaluation, or application. The measure demonstrates potential in understanding the role of research evidence in service settings and in monitoring the process of evidence-based practice and application of scientific principles in social work practice