Contributed by Anne Gebelein 

First year Masters student Diana Velasco is leading a new partnership between the Department of Children and Families and El Instituto. This semester, Diana will be interning with DCF’s immigration attorney Jennifer Avenia to develop a database of agencies, non-profit and volunteer organizations throughout the state who support mixed-status and undocumented families in CT. The DCF policy is to serve all children in need in our state, and they have seen an increase in unaccompanied and undocumented children in their care. Diana will be guiding students in Anne Gebelein’s LLAS 2012: Latino CT class to research local agencies and interview staff to accurately map out what agencies are helping our most vulnerable and in what specific ways. By late spring with the help of LLAS students, Diana hopes to have an updated and accurate network of providers that DCF workers and teachers can use for referrals.

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