STAR Seminar: Promoting Wellness and Sustainability in Immigrants’ Rights Advocacy

This Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) Seminar will explore how immigrants’ rights advocates can promote wellness, sustainability, and resilience while responding to a rapidly changing immigration landscape. Participants will discuss recent immigration updates and consider how those changes affect clients, legal teams, and community-based advocacy work. This seminar will highlight the role of mental health professionals in immigration legal advocacy, including how interdisciplinary collaboration can better support clients facing trauma, instability, and systemic barriers. Using a trauma informed framework, the session will examine strategies for building trust, promoting client-centered services, and reducing harm in high-stress legal settings. This presentation will also address wellness and sustainability for advocacy teams, with attention to burnout prevention, reflective practice, and supportive organizational culture. Participants will learn about creative programming that integrates legal advocacy, social work principles, and wellness-centered practices to strengthen both client outcomes and team resilience.