La Puerta Abierta / The Open Door

As requests for locally-based, bi-lingual clinical support services for immigrant families in our local community have increased over recent years, ICFamWell was asked to assist in developing a similar model of training and support for locally-based (bi-lingual) practitioners who are also committed to serving families in our immigrant community

 In the fall of 2010, ICFamWell launched a local initiative-- La Puerta Abierta/The Open Door-- in the Latino communities of the Delaware Valley. Our community-based volunteers and university interns, many of whom represent the cultures and communities that we serve, bring special skills of language and cultural competence that invite families into a process of healing and growth.

  Volunteers and interns are trained and supervised through a “service learning model”, which provides solid foundational clinical theory in addition to closely supervised practice with families referred through our community partners. Thus, we are able to provide family counseling, family group sessions and distribution of materials in English and Spanish that support relational wellness—all free of charge and in a manner that is culturally-sensitive and easily accessible to our most vulnerable and marginalized families.

La Puerta Abierta/The Open Door offers an alternative to the complicated and oftentimes less accessible larger bureaucracies of our public/private service delivery systems. We focus our efforts on Latino families who are impacted by immigration, lack of documentation, displacement of various family members, and the subsequent trauma and chaos that is perpetuated by these experiences.  Many of these families are further marginalized by a lack of language skills, resources, and reliable relationships in the community. These are families who would not typically seek or participate in services elsewhere and commonly choose, instead, to struggle and suffer in the shadows of our communities.

Stay tuned as we post ongoing training materials and information for community-based professionals serving immigrant youth and families.

As always, we appreciate your support of our work!