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College of Law > Academics > Centers, Institutes & Initiatives > DePaul Migration Collaborative > Projects > Solutions Lab

Solutions Lab

​​​​The DePaul Migration Collaborative (DMC) is home to the Solutions Lab Research Grant program, an innovative initiative that seeks to bridge gaps in services and support for migrants. Supported by generous funding from Schreiber Philanthropy, the program targets vital challenges faced by migrants in the United States and around the world. 

The Solutions Lab is designed to foster interdisciplinary, community-engaged research projects. Successful collaborations involve scholars and community partner organizations working hand in hand to identify and address critical areas of need. The unique partnership between academia and community organizations ensures that the solutions developed are not only theoretically sound but practically impactful. Each Solutions Lab project receives funding for six to twelve months of dedicated work. Teams are often comprised of DePaul faculty, staff, students, and even external academic collaborators. These interdisciplinary teams' partner with community organizations to co-design research projects that have tangible benefits for the community. The grant funding is thoughtfully distributed between the academic team and the community partner organization, reflecting the value and importance of both in the project’s success. 

The Solutions Lab has already made significant strides in assisting migrants. Current projects include Prof. Ramya Ramanath's project to study how forced migrants experience homelessness, Prof. Monica Reyes's project focused on rhetorical practices and how migrant volunteer contributions help them navigate systemic barriers while fostering resilience, and Prof. Jay Baglia's project will be working on a patient centered video series that will assist migrants navigate their healthcare.  

Looking ahead to the 2025-26 cycle, the Solutions Lab continues to build on its foundational mission. It serves as a beacon of collaboration and innovation, creating solutions tailored to the unique needs and challenges of migrant communities.

Ramya Ramanath: Delineating Pathways into Homelessness Among Forced Migrants: Lessons and Recommendations from a Multi-Country Implementation Analysis  

Ramya

Ramya Ramanath is Associate Professor at DePaul University's School of Public Service where she chairs its International Public Service degree program. Her research projects, primarily in India, the US, and East Africa, draw on disciplinary perspectives in organizational behavior, urban sociology, planning, anthropology, and political science. Her resulting publications have focused on interorganizational and organization-community relations in affordable housing, resettlement and rehabilitation, capacity building, program evaluation and gender-responsive policy and practice. 

Her project with the DMC Solutions Lab Delineating Pathways into Homelessness Among Forced Migrants: Lessons and Recommendations from a Multi-Country Implementation Analysis, involves working with the Ruff Institute for Global Homelessness. Cities are paradoxical entities, both the sites of refuge and homecoming for displaced migrants and yet they are the very spaces where those forcibly displaced face the risk of double displacement i.e., the loss of both a home and a homeland. Forced migrants face challenges in accessing shelter. This project, conducted in partnership with the Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness, will examine the policies and practices that precipitate (or preclude) homelessness from the perspective of service providers, both governmental and nongovernmental, working with forced migrants in multiple distinct cities across the globe.  In doing so, it will inform policy and procedural change at a time when many cities are experiencing a mass influx of forcibly displaced migrants.

Mónica Reyes: Cultivating Community: Rhetorical Practices of Migrant Volunteers in Chicago

Mónica Reyes

Mónica Reyes (PhD, Old Dominion University) is an assistant professor in the Writing, Rhetoric & Discourse Department at DePaul University. Her research focuses on cultural rhetorics and critical refugee studies, with particular attention to the intersections of rhetoric, storytelling, and migration. She is the author of Rhetoric and Storytelling within the U.S. Asylum Process (2024). Her work has appeared in Grassroots Activisms: Public Rhetorics in Localized Contexts (2024), Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing & Culture (2020), and Postcolonial Text (2019). 

Dr. Reyes’ project, Cultivating Community: Rhetorical Practices of Migrant Volunteers in Chicago, partners with Nuevos Vecinos— a Chicago non-profit — to explore how migrant volunteers use volunteer work to create community, purpose, and belonging in the context of restricted access to work permits. This research focuses on the rhetorical practices of migrant volunteers and how their contributions help them navigate systemic barriers while fostering resilience.

Jay Baglia: Access and Understanding: Navigating Migrant Care with CommunityHealth

Jay Baglia

Jay Baglia has over 25 years of experience working in healthcare to improve communication among patients and providers. At DePaul, Dr. Baglia teaches courses in Health Communication, Health Literacy, and Health Disparities. He has published award-winning scholarship in the area of health communication. Prior to joining DePaul, Baglia was a medical educator for Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) in Allentown, Pennsylvania. For LVHN, he developed curriculum and assessment tools for the Department of Family Medicine Residency Program, planned and facilitated workshops in the Teaching Leader Series, and served as study coordinator for the Cultural Awareness Implementation Team baseline assessment group. 

His Solutions Lab grant project involves creating patient-centered videos for CommunityHealth, the largest provider of free healthcare for the uninsured, including migrants, in Chicago.​

Previous Projects

Kathleen Arnold Ph.D. was a 2023-2024 Solutions Lab grantee. Dr. Arnold is a political theorist specializing in issues of statelessness, sovereignty, and inequality. She is the author of various articles, chapters, and books. Her project for the Solutions Lab involved working with the Resurrection Project (TRP) as her community partner, to produce targeted country reports to help with asylum applications. Working with a team of students, Dr. Arnold has accomplished creating resources and country conditions affidavits to support new arrivals to Chicago for over 10 countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Cameroon, Columbia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mexico, Haiti and more. Dr. Arnold’s reports can be accessed by request through TRP.

Executive Summary of Findings

Kate Cooper Ph.D. was a 2023- 2024 Solutions Lab grantee. Dr. Cooper is an assistant professor of communication studies in the College of Communication. Her project partnered with Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA) in order to create mentorship and design a sustainable training program for volunteers. The research team compiled findings from FORA focus groups and surveys into a detailed report. In addition, they compiled best practices from peer-reviewed research that focused on the effectiveness of volunteer programs. The complete 24-page report is available online, with summarized findings below.

Executive Summary of Findings

Lamont Black Ph.D. was a 2023- 2024 Solutions Lab grantee. Dr. Black is an Associate Professor of Finance who focuses on digital transformations of business with an emphasis on emerging technologies including AI and the Metaverse. His project addressed migrant finances from the perspective of money, savings, and remittances, assessing migrant financial hurdles and the protentional for new technologies to provide better financial inclusion practices. You can access a summary of his findings below.

Executive Summary of Findings