Our History

At the same time, the director of The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) understood the growing and ongoing mental health needs within immigrant communities and was actively seeking a network that could collaborate with them and supplement their ongoing policy and advocacy-based work.

Two days after the 2016 election, about 25 individuals from immigrant communities and those serving these communities came together to discuss the need for a way to unite our efforts on behalf of the wellbeing of immigrants and their families. We learned quickly from each other that families were in immediate crisis as a direct result of the election of a new administration. The urgent needs among immigrants and other marginalized groups resonated with our collective values to embrace community diversity, honor the human rights of all community members, and work toward social justice. Many of us were part of the immigrant community ourselves and already working on parallel efforts in our capacities as mental health practitioners, community organizers, faculty members and researchers. As such, we carried diverse forms of knowledge, research backgrounds and skillsets. 

Initial introductions during the first meeting helped us recognize our diverse backgrounds, our role as stakeholders directly impacted by immigration policy, and the strong potential our collaboration could have on immigrant communities in Chicago and Illinois, more broadly. This incited enthusiasm among group members and moved us into discussions of both short-term and long-term possibilities. Given the urgencies of the post-election context, our first order of business was to strategize how to utilize and streamline our existing efforts and resources to address the immediate mental health needs of the immigrant community. At the same time, we recognized the importance of building long-term university-community partnerships, and that a truly collaborative effort would need to bring together diverse stakeholders, including many other immigrants themselves. We agreed to make special efforts to invite undocumented immigrants of all ages to join our discussions and help steer our group engagements. Inspired by the courageous work of undocumented youth who have propelled the national immigration movement (Nicholls, 2013), we believed that research and community practice needed to engage and highlight the narratives of multiple and diverse immigrants in order to both challenge dominant perceptions of their lives and build more complex understandings that support their development and incorporation into U.S. society (Dao, 2017). The urgency of the moment and the recognition of great needs for immigrants gave rise to the Coalition for Immigrant Mental Health (CIMH).

Almost simultaneously and with similar urgency, other leaders and advocates began organizing on behalf of refugees and children who experienced trauma due to traumatic separation or migration experiences. Their efforts led to the founding of the Illinois Refugee Mental Health (ILRMH) Taskforce and to the Committee on Refugee & Immigrant Children (RIC) within the existing Illinois Childhood Trauma Coalition (ICTC).  These organizations led critical initiatives on behalf of refugees and immigrant children. They often worked alongside CIMH in developing resources, disseminating information, providing mental health training and engaging in advocacy efforts. Realizing the strength of our common concerns, ILRMH and RIC merged with CIMH in 2020. 

Beginning in March of 2020, the Coalition and ILRMH merged. Both groups shared missions that promoted the mental wellbeing of immigrant communities through coordinating professionals, disseminating resources, professional development opportunities and advocacy. Subsequently, the merger blended expertise across immigration statuses -- refugees, asylum-seekers, undocumented, unaccompanied minors – and increased the professional network for both organizations. The original focus of ILRMH continues through the ongoing work of the Refugee Community Wellness Workgroup.

Similarly,  ICTC-RIC merged with the Coalition in June of 2020.  Both coalitions overlapped and benefitted from shared membership and investment in advancing the emotional wellbeing and healing trauma of immigrant communities. With RIC’s increasing desire to get involved in policy and advocacy efforts (due to the powerful effects of immigration policy on child/family mental health), joining forces into a larger, more powerful organization made sense to coordinate timely responses to rapid changes in the sociopolitical climate. The RIC Committee’s focus on elevating children’s voices and the impact of trauma (beyond mental illness) will remain intact through the CIMH’s workgroup on Children, Families and Trauma.