Connecting immigrants with essential resources

Lorenzo Benavides and Refugee Women in Action collaborate to enhance access and integration

By Jesseca Stoneham
Office of Academic Affairs Marketing and Communications Intern

For many immigrants, arriving in the United States means confronting formidable barriers in accessing health care and essential resources.

According to Lorenzo Benavides, a graduate student in the College of Social Work, it has become increasingly evident that there is a pressing need for a centralized hub of resources for this population in Columbus. Immigrants are facing substantial challenges in accessing needed services, along with crucial information that is important for a successful integration into the city.

As a Columbus-Athens Schweitzer Fellow, Benavides is partnering with Refugee Women in Action (RWIA) on the project. RWIA is a non-profit organization that empowers refugee women and their families by providing support to foster social and economic independence.

For the past three years, Benavides has worked in a pediatric emergency department and specializes in cases involving abuse, neglect and death. He interacts closely with refugee families, assessing their needs and connecting them with resources to help ensure their safety and recovery.

"Working in the ER, I would see families bringing in their malnourished children or [children] who were lost to follow up, meaning that families would not keep up with their child's medical care," he said. "A significant portion of these families struggled acquiring access to basic essential services, such as food, transportation and money for gas or other miscellaneous expenses."

Those factors, compounded with a language barrier and a lack of a nuanced understanding of the U.S. medical system, made their situations much more difficult to resolve, he added.

To address these issues, Benavides, with the support of the RWIA, is developing a website for refugee families to refer to for information such as enrolling children into school, obtaining health insurance and other essential information for navigating their transition to living in Columbus.

"I want to build a very tailored and personal website to make it easier to access resources, along with aiding [refugees] in acclimation to an American system," Benavides emphasized.

To ensure the website meets the needs of refugee families and provides the highest quality of resources and support for the community, Benavides and his collaborators plan to incorporate input from the community throughout the process. He intends to conduct a survey in the coming months to better understand the challenges and information gaps. He anticipates the site's development will take one to two years.

"Getting to know the families and interact with them is one of the best parts about this project," Benavides said. "Really diving into what their needs are is the entire point of the development of this website."

The Columbus-Athens Schweitzer Fellows Program supports and trains health-focused graduate and professional students in creating their service projects. With a $3,000 stipend provided by the program, Fellows can fully dedicate their time and energy to the service initiatives in their communities.