"Equipping Practitioners: Trauma Informed Assessment Toolkit for Asylum Seeker Support" 

Venera Bekteshi, PhD, MSW, MPA, MA is an accomplished scholar and educator, and has made significant contributions to the fields of social work, public health and immigrant studies through her career. With an impressive portfolio of over 30 co-authored articles, she has been a driving force in advancing knowledge and addressing pressing societal issues. Holding a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Boston College School of Social Work, specializing in the intersection of immigration, mental health and health inequities, she brings a wealth of multidisciplinary knowledge to her writing. Additionally, her fluency in Croatian, Serbian, Spanish and English allows her to engage with diverse communities, exploring immigrant experiences from various cultural perspectives. Currently serving as an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma School of Social Work, Dr. Bekteshi leads a cancer research initiative cluster and continues to shape the fields of social work and public health Her multifaceted background and unwavering passion for positive change make her a formidable advocate. 

As a PIR with the DMC, Dr. Bekteshi will develop, pilot and share the Contextual Influence in Acculturative Stress (CIAS) Practitioner’s Toolkit for teams serving asylum seekers. Rooted in her CIAS model, the toolkit translates an evidence-based framework into practical assessment templates, interview guides, and a contextual analysis matrix that help legal advocates and social workers document trauma, resilience, cultural strengths and structural barriers in a consistent, culturally responsive way. In partnership with Illinois organizations, she will pilot the toolkit with frontline practitioners and gather structured feedback. The project aims to strengthen asylum narratives with richer contextual evidence, improve holistic care planning, and offer a transferable model that can scale through professional networks and practitioner training beyond the residency.

“Nada Para Nosotros sin Nosotros:” Amplifying Migrant Voices 
 

Ellen Miller was a 2024-2025 DMC PIR. During her residency, she conducted community-based research on Chicago’s immigration legal services for recent arrivals and compiled her research into a report to shed light on lived experiences of benefiting populations and potential future programmatic decisions. Her work builds on best practices and practical tools for participatory evaluations amongst legal service providers.

Final Report: Amplifying Migrant Voices: Insights from Participatory Evaluations on Accessing Immigrant Legal Services in Chicago.

Legal Service Providers Resource and Report: Feedback in Action: Improving Client Feedback Systems to Enhance Immigration Legal Services

Protecting Rights Across Contexts and International Sharing (PRAxIS) 

Joshua Friedman was a 2023-2024 DMC PIR. During his residency, Josh conducted research that looks comparatively at refugee integration alongside the rights to adequate food and shelter in Chicago and Vienna. Combining legal and policy review with qualitative research on the experiences of refugees in both locations with food and housing, the research aims to highlight best practice examples and challenges faced in the U.S. and Central Europe.

Final Report: Coming Soon

Filling in the Gaps: The Landscape of Chicago’s Informal Faith Networks in Migrant Housing 

Charlotte Long was a 2024-2025 DMC PIR. She is a Housing Specialist for migrants and asylum seekers in Chicago and a professor of Gender Justice studies at Roosevelt University. During her residency, she collected qualitative information on faith-based informal housing networks in the Chicagoland area that have worked to house recent migrant arrivals in the past three years. The research is based on existing literature on "Sanctuary" networking, but is also focused on understanding new tools and techniques that informal community groups and religious spaces use to assist houseless immigrants unable to benefit from city services.

Final Report Form: Request "Filling in the Gaps" Research Article

Achieving Strategic Forced Migration Policy in Illinois

Rob Paral was a 2023-2024 DMC PIR. He is a demographic and public policy consultant with specialties in immigrant, Latino and Asian populations; community needs for health and human service programs; and Midwestern demographic change. Rob’s project focused on developing a report on Illinois capacity to resettle migrants and the state’s response to recently arrived forced migrants included achievement and potential avenues for improvement. Within his report, Rob highlights recommendations for future Illinois policy. To accomplish his goal Rob traveled throughout the city of Chicago, Springfield, IL, and El Paso, TX, to interview administrative and legislative budget experts relevant to the report and interviewing immigration attorneys and advocates.

Final Report: “Building a Plane While It’s Flying”: Illinois Confronts a New Era of Forced Migration

Research That Increases Asylum Access for Salvadorans, Hondurans, and Guatemalans, in the Chicago Area 

Elizabeth G. Kennedy, PhD was a 2023-2024 DMC PIR. She is a 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar to El Salvador and LAPOP's 2023-2024 Honduras expert. Her project focused on preparing expert witness affidavits on the country conditions of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, alongside create training materials and guidance for immigrant advocacy organizations in connection with each of the country condition reports. Her project also prioritized coordinating alongside the DMC to make these expert witness reports available to legal service providers for use in support of asylum applications.

Final Report: Asylum Access for Salvadorians, Honduras and Guatemalans