LatinX Conference Presentation Receives Positive Reception

Diana Formoso, Ph.D., and members of the Unaccompanied, But Not Alone research team in the College of Psychology presented a symposium entitled Strengths and Needs of Unaccompanied Immigrant Minors and their Caregivers:  Working Collaboratively Across Disciplines to Fill Resource-Need Gaps at the National Latinx Psychological Association in Denver, CO. The talks focused on the strengths and needs of unaccompanied immigrant youth and their caregivers, balancing protection and autonomy for UIM in the U.S. refugee foster care system, and how we used community asset mapping methods to develop a community resource guide for migrant youth and families in South Florida.

The presentation was very well-received, with comments noted about how the various projects exemplified the strengths of community-based work (for example, interviewing migrant youth and professionals who work with them, forming a community advisory board), the importance of building trusting, respectful relationships with community partners, how to harness the University’s mission of community engagement and the privilege of education to build community resources and resilience, and the power of organizing and sharing community resources to support migrant youth and their families.

This work was made possible by a President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant and the commitment and hard work of the students in the Unaccompanied, But Not Alone research team: Jocelyn Meza, Adriana Wilson, Melissa Perez, Marianela Pena-Martinez, Veronica Grosse, and Courtney Clark. The NSU team was joined by Dr. Maria Fernanda Garcia from the University of Miami.

Posted 12/11/22