"Developing a Replicable Model for Trauma-Informed Assessment: The CIAS Toolkit for Practitioners Serving Asylum Seekers"

Venera Bekteshi, PhD, MSW, MPA, MA is a psychosocial evaluator, researcher and clinician. She was a 2026 DMC PIR, and her research focused on translating her evidence based CIAS (Contextual Influence and Acculturative Stress) framework into a practical assessment toolkit to support legal advocates and social workers in documenting and strengthening asylum narratives with richer contextual evidence while improving holistic care planning. Domains covered in the toolkit include: 1. Intake Triage, 2. Case Roadmap, 3. Prompt Bank, 4. Disclosure Framework, 5. Declaration Review, and 6. Interpreter and Evidence Tools. This credibility-sensitive immigration interviewing toolkit is available on our website in its condensed form and a complete version of the toolkit including the option to request trainings or consultations with Dr. Bekteshi can be accessed via Forward with Dignity. Please note, this toolkit is a structured practice aid for attorneys, accredited representatives, social workers and interdisciplinary teams working on asylum and related immigration matters. This toolkit does not provide legal or clinical advice and cannot be used as a court facing form.

Toolkit: Contextualized Interviewing and Asylum Support (CIAS) Practitioner Toolkit

“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: Protecting Rights Across Contexts and International Sharing (PRAXIS)

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

It is best to treat the residency as a full-time commitment. Practitioners agree to a four to six month contract with the DMC and are expected to spend about 50% of the residency in-person in Chicago. Please note that the DMC does not cover housing costs during the residency period in Chicago. Instead, the DMC provides a generous stipend to researchers to offset housing costs. This applies to all practitioners who live outside of Chicago.

The Practitioner-in-Residence is dedicated toward intensive research and the development of a new tool, practice, etc. Meanwhile, the Practitioner-in-Action is only for those who have already field-tested a project and are looking to share the work with the community and expand practice implementation through trainings and more.

This residency is designed for professionals working in the field of migration, including researchers and direct service providers, who have demonstrated success in carrying out similar projects. Because the residency requires a full-time commitment, applicants should be prepared to dedicate their full attention to advancing their proposed project during the residency period.

Applicants should begin the residency with a well-developed project idea. By the start of the residency, you should have completed a thorough literature review, identified a clear research problem or gap, and developed a research plan outlining your objectives, methodology and intended outcomes. The residency is designed to support the execution and completion of your project rather than the early stages of project development.

Practitioners receive a generous stipend alongside a project budget with approved expenses. Outside of financial support, the DMC provides logistical support and coordination, feedback on research, access to DMC partners and DePaul technology, and library resources.

The DMC is currently unable to accept applications requiring visa sponsorship.

Generally, the DMC accepts about two Practitioners each academic year. Applications usually open in the summer, and the residency usually starts during the academic year.

The best way is to sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social media to learn about the next open call for applications.