Mental health needs of our Latino/Latinx immigrant communities in New York City have only increased in recent years. Many newly arrived immigrants experience trauma both during migration and when arriving in New York City. While there have been efforts to increase support at city level, many of the immigrants’ communities are not receiving the mental and emotional support they need.
Join the Eleventh Annual New York City Latino Health Action Day where the panelists will discuss the intersection between mental health, stigma, and immigration and share strategies to address this critical situation.
Council Member Alexa Avilés is a proud New Yorker living in Sunset Park with her husband Frankie and their two daughters. Before her election to City Council, Alexa’s career spanned almost three decades in the not-for-profit and philanthropic sectors. Most recently, Alexa served as Program Director at the Scherman Foundation, where she supported local and national social justice organizations that included work to protect human rights, autonomy, and dignity of all people. She has supported state and national efforts to reduce the incarceration of juveniles and adults, fought discrimination across multiple government systems, and supported the empowerment of marginalized communities
Rosa Bramble Caballero is a New York Licensed Social Worker. With over 20 years of experience as a direct practitioner, program developer and consultant, Rosa has implemented interventions at the micro and macro levels of social work addressing migration trauma and the mental health of immigrant populations. Her professional trajectory encompasses the field of HIV/AIDS where as a program director she provided mental health services to undocumented immigrants, organized retreats for marginalized women living with HIV/AIDS and safe groups for newly arrived LGBT seropositive immigrants. Rosa’s commitment to serving the Latinx community and her social justice efforts have led to impact on the community, local policy, and resulted in her grassroots intervention of co-founding Voces Latinas. She sits on the board of the New York State Perinatal Association to ensure dynamic public health policy in maternal health.
Rosa is the Founder of the Venezuelan Alliance for Community Support, Inc., where in addition to advocacy, she adapts her advanced trainings in trauma healing and recovery to address the mental health needs of Venezuelan refugees and Latinx survivors of trauma at all stages of migration in a safe environment which honors the cultural resiliency and integration of community traditional practices.
Rosa is also an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University School of Social Work, where she developed and teaches a course on trauma-informed treatment for asylum seekers and immigrants. She has co-authored publications on the impact of US immigration policy and provides expert witness in immigration cases. Rosa has presented in national and international conferences including Peru, Italy, Austria, Spain, Mexico and Canada. She was born in Venezuela and identifies as an Afro-Latina which informs her role as a DEI consultant addressing the transgenerational trauma of racism, colorism and classism in the Latinx communities. She embraces dance, music and breathing practices to foster self-care.
Yesenia Mata is an immigration and veteran activist. As the daughter of formerly undocumented immigrants, Yesenia has been advocating for immigration reform. She was the former National Latino Outreach Strategist for Bernie Sander’s Presidential Campaign, where she organized the Latino communities in Chicago, Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Florida. She also was the Political Director for the Dream Action Coalition, a national organization that advocates for immigration reform. She has been recognized by City & State as top 100 in Labor and Staten Island, by New York State Hispanic Coalition as a “40 under 40 Rising Star ” and has received a prestigious Proclamation from the City of New York for her work in the Latinx community. She was also appointed by previous Mayor DeBlasio to serve as commissioner for the NYC Racial Justice Commission, and appointed by Mayor-elect Adams to serve in the immigration transition team. She is currently the Executive Director of La Colmena an Immigration/Day Labor Rights Organization, and serves as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army Military Police.
As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, Rosy Mota grew up understanding how government policies and bias can have detrimental effects on marginalized communities. Working out of her hometown of Houston as an organizer for Enroll America, Rosy educated residents and trained health care workers about the federal Affordable Care Act as an option in Texas’ health care marketplace. After working briefly for the Houston Health Department, Rosy enrolled at Baruch College for her master’s degree in public education. She joined the school’s urban fellows program and began working at an HIV clinic in Coney Island, helping link HIV-positive patients to proper care. Later, Rosy started working at the Latino Commission on AIDS as the organization’s director of community health education, managing a variety of local initiatives and building a national HIV health policy agenda before stepping up as the organization’s COVID-19 response director. Rosy is currently planning the second National Hispanic/Latinx Health Leadership Summit, where Hispanic-serving organizations will convene to collaborate on a health policy agenda for 2024.
Jean Carlos Osorio is a NYS Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and a Certified Dialectical Behavioral Therapist (CDBT). He is the founder and Clinical/Executive Director at Minds Together, LCSW.PC. Mr. Osorio have worked in the field of Social Work for more than 13 years in different social work settings including Psychiatric hospitals/institutions, inpatient and outpatient mental health facilities, community centers, non-profit agencies, LGBTQI community centers. He also has been in private practice, as well as dictating presentations and workshops at conferences and seminaries for local and foreign entities. He specializes in childhood trauma/abuse/neglect, unresolved childhood issues, addictive behaviors, personality disorders, anxiety, depression and gender identity conflicts. He also worked with victims of human sex trafficking, and the undocumented population. He was providing services in both languages, English and Spanish.
Erica P. Sandoval, LCSW-SIFI, is a passionate licensed clinical therapist dedicated to promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Erica holds a Post Master’s in Clinical Adolescent Psychology and a Master’s in Social Work from New York University, Silver School of Social Work. She is the founder and CEO of Sandoval CoLab, a wellness and equity consulting firm. Erica is a 6x published author and Founder of Latinx in Social Work, a #1 Best Seller and Hot New Release under Social Work and Psychology on Amazon. Erica is a social justice advocate and supports the healing of communities of color through storytelling, mental health and wellness workshops and most recently Psychedelic therapy and retreats. Most recently she launched a 501c(3), Siembra Today Inc, which provides accessible mental health and wellness for vulnerable communities.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Director of Community Engagement, at Lreberte@latinoaids.org