The Protecting Immigrant Families (PIF) Coalition hosted a webinar on October 4, 2023, entitled “Connecting Immigrant Families with Resources that Help them Thrive.” With the goal of sharing and publicizing resources created to inform and instruct families on what is available and how to find and apply for support. They heavily discussed the process of destigmatizing support systems and the importance of promoting resources from multiple platforms to increase trust. Immigrant families face numerous struggles, and due to language barriers, misinformation, fear of persecution and many other concerns, are unable to access programs and assistance. PIF hopes to mitigate this stress and create more positive outcomes from parents and their children immigrating to the United States through their resource guides which can be used and edited by other states and organizations to be publicized through their channels.
The “chilling effect” has created a huge barrier in access to resources to immigrant families who have been taught to fear consequences and persecution due to immigration status in these spaces. PIF and similar organizations are aiming to deconstruct the narrative and mitigate this fear by creating informational and instructive resource guides.
By Pasha Ceniceros, Policy Intern