Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey
Organizations working with immigrant families navigate circumstances related to families’ cultural background, personal resources, and social connections by engaging in culturally responsive practices. Immigrant families experience linguistic, cultural, and policy challenges in search for resources...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The University of Alabama
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship |
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| Online Access: | https://account.jces.ua.edu/index.php/s-j-jces/article/view/505 |
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| author | Carla Villacis Samuel Ross |
| author_facet | Carla Villacis Samuel Ross |
| author_sort | Carla Villacis |
| collection | DOAJ |
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Organizations working with immigrant families navigate circumstances related to families’ cultural background, personal resources, and social connections by engaging in culturally responsive practices. Immigrant families experience linguistic, cultural, and policy challenges in search for resources available to them in the United States, often through minimal social connections (Furman et al., 2009; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2012). Inter-agency collaborations help immigrant families navigate these barriers (Vanek et al., 2020) by coordinating programming and case management to streamline the support available to families. This study documents the challenges and social-delivery practices that immigrant Hispanic families and agency collaborators must navigate in the Southern New Jersey region. Through interviews with 15 agency staff members and 21 Hispanic immigrant families these agencies served, researchers gathered insights into service providers’ reflections on their work and families’ perspectives on the assistance they received. Family caregivers spoke candidly about their struggles to find employment, childcare, and other services in Spanish, learn English, and balance family obligations in the U.S. and in their home countries. In turn, agency staff shared their experiences with prejudice from locals towards immigrants, on leveraging formal and informal resources to assist their families, and on identifying funding sources that do not require their clients’ immigration status. Interviews also revealed that participants’ ability to rely on each other as families, providers, and communities bolstered a sense of support and community engagement.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f7fc0785817a41079993b4b9ffd56777 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1944-1207 2837-8075 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | The University of Alabama |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship |
| spelling | doaj-art-f7fc0785817a41079993b4b9ffd567772025-01-08T20:12:39ZengThe University of AlabamaJournal of Community Engagement and Scholarship1944-12072837-80752025-01-0117310.54656/jces.v17i3.505Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New JerseyCarla Villacis0Samuel Ross1Rutgers University- CamdenRutgers University- Camden Organizations working with immigrant families navigate circumstances related to families’ cultural background, personal resources, and social connections by engaging in culturally responsive practices. Immigrant families experience linguistic, cultural, and policy challenges in search for resources available to them in the United States, often through minimal social connections (Furman et al., 2009; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2012). Inter-agency collaborations help immigrant families navigate these barriers (Vanek et al., 2020) by coordinating programming and case management to streamline the support available to families. This study documents the challenges and social-delivery practices that immigrant Hispanic families and agency collaborators must navigate in the Southern New Jersey region. Through interviews with 15 agency staff members and 21 Hispanic immigrant families these agencies served, researchers gathered insights into service providers’ reflections on their work and families’ perspectives on the assistance they received. Family caregivers spoke candidly about their struggles to find employment, childcare, and other services in Spanish, learn English, and balance family obligations in the U.S. and in their home countries. In turn, agency staff shared their experiences with prejudice from locals towards immigrants, on leveraging formal and informal resources to assist their families, and on identifying funding sources that do not require their clients’ immigration status. Interviews also revealed that participants’ ability to rely on each other as families, providers, and communities bolstered a sense of support and community engagement. https://account.jces.ua.edu/index.php/s-j-jces/article/view/505community-based researchintercultural competencecommunity-based organizationsimmigrationcommunity |
| spellingShingle | Carla Villacis Samuel Ross Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship community-based research intercultural competence community-based organizations immigration community |
| title | Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey |
| title_full | Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey |
| title_fullStr | Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey |
| title_full_unstemmed | Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey |
| title_short | Building and Strengthening Communities Through Culturally Responsive Inter-Agency Collaboration in Southern New Jersey |
| title_sort | building and strengthening communities through culturally responsive inter agency collaboration in southern new jersey |
| topic | community-based research intercultural competence community-based organizations immigration community |
| url | https://account.jces.ua.edu/index.php/s-j-jces/article/view/505 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carlavillacis buildingandstrengtheningcommunitiesthroughculturallyresponsiveinteragencycollaborationinsouthernnewjersey AT samuelross buildingandstrengtheningcommunitiesthroughculturallyresponsiveinteragencycollaborationinsouthernnewjersey |