How one mother built Massachusetts' largest Brazilian support network for special education

The Lexington School for the Deaf provides wraparound family services including free American Sign Language classes and assistance navigating the health, legal and shelter systems, particularly for immigrant families. The gaps immigrant families face in accessing necessary services creates psychological distress, especially for children. But research shows community-based supports, like The Lexington School, help address those gaps and improve mental health outcomes.

In Oakland, California, parents, many of whom are immigrants, take family literacy classes at their child's elementary school. These programs empower parents to help students with their homework and provide parents with a better understanding of curriculum expectations, such as common core standards.

When many Latina immigrant women arrive in the United States, they don't have access to the internet to learn about the resources available to them. Únete Latina, a program run by Latinas, sends mobile phone texts to women with supportive messages in Spanish and with information about relevant news items and public services.

Casa Frida is a Mexican shelter and resource center serving LGBTQ+ migrants fleeing persecution and violence in their home countries. The organization provides temporary shelter and meals for a small number of people and helps dozens of others connect to legal guidance, temporary work, psychological counseling, and advice on renting safely.

EarlyBird, a dyslexia screening program run by the South Central Board of Cooperative Educational Services, screened about 200 children for signs of dyslexia last year to connect them with extra help in the classroom. The program is already proving to be effective in the school districts participating in it and it’s set to expand to more schools during the 2024-2025-school year.

Denver Public Schools’ Community Hubs provide wide-ranging support for students and their families, from language classes and GED programs for parents learning English to food pantries, financial education courses, and mobile medical appointments. The hubs have served more than 4,000 families since launching in 2022, with roughly 600 migrant families being served this year.

The Dyslexia Foundation Nigeria aims to create awareness about dyslexia and ADHD through radio and TV talk shows, spreading information to encourage parents to seek out testing and training for their children with dyslexia. The Foundation also offers more affordable testing and brain training for children with dyslexia that helps to improve their learning ability over time.

Because of coordinated partnerships between local governments, state health departments, and nonprofit groups, more and more farmworkers are receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. Through the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services Farmworker Health program and its partners, nearly 14,000 doses were administered to the farmworker community over two months. Advocates also have to dispel rumors and myths about the vaccines, but they are working to combat that misinformation and make it easier for them to get vaccinated.

A fleet of mobile health units across the nation have been helping low-income and immigrant communities to access public health care resources, but during the coronavirus pandemic, the focus has shifted to providing relevant safety information. Leveraging the trust that has been developed over time, public health care workers are utilizing social media to distribute information and resources until they can until they can begin "delivering medications in partnership with Federally Qualified Health Centers, a safety net for uninsured and undocumented people."

LGBTQ asylum seekers face a unique set of problems coming to the United States, often from places where gender expression and sexuality are strictly regulated. Four organizations across the US, Mexico, and Canada are filling this unique niche. For example, AsylumConnect created an app of resources on how to apply for asylum and a catalogue of LGBTQ-friendly services and organizations in the US for them to learn about. All four aim to validate LGBTQ asylum seekers and keep them safe.