Associate Professor Marciana Popescu, Ph.D., and Professor Dana Alonzo, Ph.D. recently received a $150,000 grant to help women asylum seekers in New York City gain access to mental health care, as reported by Fordham News.
This is one of three grants — for a total of $600,000 — given to Fordham by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. The grants will allow the University to further address the needs of its neighbors in underserved communities of the Bronx.
From the article in Fordham News:
A second grant of $150,000 will be used to help women asylum seekers in New York City gain access to much-needed mental health care. According to a 2020 report from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, more than 79 million people are displaced worldwide, more than half are under the age of 18, and more than 50% are women. In 2019, there were 46,000 asylum seekers in New York City alone, said Associate Professor Marciana Popescu, Ph.D., of Graduate School of Social Services (GSS). Popescu has extensively researched the problem and will be directing the program with GSS Professor Dana Alonzo, Ph.D., a specialist in mental health treatment. With increasingly restrictive policies pushing asylum seekers to go underground, few attempt to access mental health care services, said Popescu. The pandemic has only made the situation worse—for asylum seekers in general, and for women in particular. The project aims to identify the challenges of these women and connect them to services that are within their rights.
