02/23/26 – Living Amid Fear: Supporting the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Immigrants and Refugees

Date: Monday, February 23, 2026
Time: 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm ET
Location: Tate-Turner-Kuralt Auditorium, 1st Floor

Format: Hybrid

• Livestream via Zoom, or
• In person: UNC School of Social Work, 325 Pittsboro Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516

CE Credit: 2 CEs, read for full information on credit types awarded.
Fees: $35 (scholarships available)

Description:

This training addresses the psychological toll of living under constant threat for immigrants and refugees navigating hostile environments, family separation, and misinformation. Participants will gain tools for helping individuals and families manage their emotional and relational lives amid fear and uncertainty—while coping with very real danger. The program also explores community-level interventions to promote safety, connection, and resilience.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of the training participants will be able to:

1. Describe the psychological and relational impact of chronic fear, discrimination, and legal precarity on immigrant and refugee communities.
2. Identify culturally responsive, trauma-informed strategies for supporting clients navigating family separation, deportation threats, and misinformation.
3. Explain how misinformation and systemic threats exacerbate trauma and outline ways to share accurate, trustworthy information with clients and families.
4. Explore the role of legal stressors and immigration policy in shaping clients’ mental health and discuss supportive approaches for accompanying individuals and families through complex legal processes.
5. Apply community-level strategies that foster collective safety, connection, and empowerment in the face of systemic injustice.

Panelists:

Cheryl Chew, Esq. is the Managing Attorney at JusticeMatters, overseeing the provision of trauma-informed family law and immigration legal services through a team of eleven attorneys and paralegals. Cheryl joined JM in 2013 as the agency’s first immigration staff attorney, specializing in humanitarian immigration law to serve survivors of human trafficking and other crimes. Cheryl continues to represent clients in seeking immigration relief before the Department of Homeland Security. Over the past 12 years, Cheryl has led in the development and implementation of trauma-informed design across all areas of the organization, particularly within JM’s direct services teams. Cheryl received her B.A. from Duke University and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Edith Galvan Lopez is is the Director of Impact & Engagement at JusticeMatters. Since joining the Client Services Team in 2020, she has led efforts in program design, monitoring and evaluation, and community engagement to support clients, families, and staff. Edith began her work with JusticeMatters as a Social Work Practicum student during her final year at Meredith College, later joining the team as a Client Services Specialist. She played a key role in developing the organization’s trauma-informed client support services and was soon promoted to Program Specialist to expand access for clients with limited English proficiency and strengthen program infrastructure. A committed advocate for immigrant communities, Edith also volunteers with immigrant-serving organizations and mentors undocumented families. Originally from Mexico, she was raised in Raleigh, North Carolina. She holds a BSW from Meredith College and an MSW from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Edith serves as project coordinator for the Trauma-Informed Legal Services Program for Kinship Caregivers.

Elizabeth Godown, MSW is the Organizational Learning & Wellness Manager at Refugee Community Partnership, where she develops processes for collective care, language access, and organizational sustainability. She connects migrant and refugee community members to supportive networks and resources and provides crisis intervention. Elizabeth earned her MSW from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she contributed to a community-based participatory research project on perinatal mental health in rural North Carolina. Her work is informed by experience as a doula, trauma educator, food justice steward with FEED Durham NC, and group facilitator. She serves on the board of the Pro Bono Counseling Network and is a 2022 grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Community Research for Health Equity program.

Rachel Mack, LCSW is a clinical social worker with experience supporting refugee, displaced, and vulnerable communities. She has worked in both resettlement coordination and clinical roles, providing individual support through home and office visits and developing multilingual support groups for newly arrived refugees, including Afghan and Congolese communities. Rachel began her work with displaced populations as a volunteer at a safe house for unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers. She has also supported incarcerated individuals and survivors of gender-based violence through group facilitation and program evaluation. Her work is grounded in a trauma-informed, culturally responsive approach.

Maria Peralta Porra is a Latinx organizer with Siembra NC in Durham County, originally from Puebla, Mexico, and a 2020 graduate of Guilford College. She brings both personal and professional experience serving Latinx and other marginalized communities, shaped in part by her family’s experience when her stepfather was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in 2018. Her work reflects a deep commitment to intentional community building, social justice, and anti-racist advocacy, with past roles including the Union Scholars Program and leadership in Define American. Maria is passionate about advancing the intersection of immigrant rights and broader social issues and is seeking post-graduation employment and other enriching opportunities.

References:

• Al-Kire, R., Pasek, M., Tsang, J., Leman, J., & Rowatt, W. (2022). Protecting America’s borders: Christian nationalism, threat, and attitudes toward immigrants in the united states. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 25(2), 354-378. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430220978291
• Cruz, J. M., & Colón‐Burgos, J. F. (2024). Exit is the answer: The political nature of central american migration. International Migration, 62(1), 143-158. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13206
• Dadson, Y. A., Bennett-Gayle, D. M., Ramenzoni, V., & Gilmore, E. A. (2025). Experiences of immigrants during disasters in the US: A systematic literature review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 27(1), 134-148. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-024-01649-8
• Elshahat, S., & Moffat, T. (2022). Mental health triggers and protective factors among arabic-speaking immigrants and refugees in north america: A scoping review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 24(2), 489-505. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-021-01215-6
• Graf, S., Rubin, M., Assilamehou‐Kunz, Y., Bianchi, M., Carnaghi, A., Fasoli, F., Finell, E., Gustafsson Sendén, M., Shamloo, S. E., Tocik, J., Lacko, D., & Sczesny, S. (2023). Migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees: Different labels for immigrants influence attitudes through perceived benefits in nine countries. European Journal of Social Psychology, 53(5), 970-983. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.294
• Idris, M. (2022). Refugee resettlement experiences from sub-saharan Africa to the triad area of North Carolina. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(2), 449-471. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-021-00843-z
• Siles, I., Salas, M. F., & Waisbord, S. (2024). How migrants experience information uncertainty and vulnerability: Lessons for (dis)information studies. Social Media + Society, 10(4)https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051241292571
• Villavicencio, A., Miranda, C. P., Liu, J., & Cherng, H. S. (2021). “What’s going to happen to us?” Cultivating partnerships with immigrant families in an adverse political climate. Harvard Educational Review, 91(3), 293–318. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-91.3.293

UNC Chapel Hill – Clinical Lecture Series