Partnership Spotlight: Just Neighbors
Partnership is everything to Culmore Clinic. Our community partners allow us to expand the professional services we offer our patients. One of these partners is Just Neighbors, a 501c-3 that provides immigration legal services that enable immigrants to stabilize their legal status and fully participate in the community. We sat down with their Chief Operating Officer, Stephanie Barnes, to discuss the symbiotic relationship our organizations have and how it helps our patients and our community at large.
Thanks for taking time to discuss our partnership. First off, for those that don’t know, can you tell us a bit more about what Just Neighbors doies?
Stephanie Barnes: Of course! Just Neighbors is a 501c-3 that provides immigration legal services that enable immigrants to stabilize their legal status and fully participate in the community. For over 28 years, Just Neighbors has served 19,000+ clients from over 150 countries obtain the documentation they are legally entitled to. We believe investing in immigration legal services positively impacts a family’s overall stability in the US. Requiring individuals to pay expensive fees for these services forces families to choose between paying for legal services or for basic needs like food and housing. Research shows that granting legal status and citizenship to immigrants increases their income level, chances of home ownership, education level and access to healthcare.
Speaking of “access to healthcare,” how have you found partnering with Culmore Clinic?
Just Neighbors community
Stephanie: Partnering with Culmore Clinic has been wonderful! It is exactly where we need to be to reach immigrants in our community. More than ever, partnering with trusted organizations, where immigrants already receive services, is key to reaching them, especially in light of all of the fear and anxiety that so many families feel. Clients know that the Culmore Clinic is a safe place and so by partnering with them we can eliminate that first fear for families. We are lucky to have partnerships with several Free Clinics throughout our footprint (NOVA, Rural Virginia and Maryland) where at least once a month, patients can easily stop by and ask an immigration attorney any question. This is very necessary as there is so much misinformation in the community and also lots of fraud. It also allows the attorneys to be able to quickly identify an individual who may have an immigration benefit - when that happens, we will schedule them for a more in-depth consultation or refer them to another attorney. We only wish we could do this more but with a small staff – we simply don’t have the capacity to offer more of these. Our attorneys also need to do the actual case work!
Can you talk about what the partnership entails? What services you have been able to provide to Culmore Clinic and our patients?
The services we provide at Culmore Clinic is a scaled down version of some of our larger “Immigration Medical Legal Partnerships” (IMLP). We would love to find funding to make this a formal version of this program, so if you are reading this and are interested in helping to fund this, please be in touch (email RachelJ@culmoreclinic.org).
IMLPs exist because non-citizens are more likely to lack health insurance than native born U.S. citizens. Many immigrant patients believe they are prohibited from accessing healthcare or lack financial resources to pay for care, and so may delay treatment and then a treatable health problem may develop into an expensive, life-threatening emergency. Such barriers drive up health disparities, increase uncompensated care costs for providers, and create a class of systematically disadvantaged individuals who miss opportunities to seek preventive medical treatment and experience conditions that impact work productivity or job stability. Partnerships like this one with the Culmore Clinic allow Just Neighbors to screen uninsured/underinsured immigrants and determine whether these patients may actually qualify for insurance through an employer and/or qualify for the ACA/federally funded insurance programs.
What can people reading this do to help and protect our neighbors?
Here’s a few things that would be the most helpful:
Donate to organizations like Just Neighbors – this will help us increase our capacity so that we can help more people. We currently have to turn away 80% of the people who reach out to us for help. Better yet, fund a formal IMLP between the Culmore Clinic and Just Neighbors! If you want to learn more about this, you can email Culmore Clinic at RachelJ@culmoreclinic.org.
Educate yourself about immigration policies and how the immigration system works. We frequently offer “Immigration 101” trainings. If you are interested, contact us and we can sign you up! -
When you see things about immigration that you are unhappy about—please contact your congressional representatives!
Talk to your neighbors about immigration fraud. It is really important to find trusted attorneys that specialize in immigration law (not notaries or family members) to get immigration advice. We see so many people that have not only lost thousands of dollars but who are also now at risk of removal for filing false claims.
Thanks so much for chatting with us, Stephanie! Anything else you’d like to add?
We are so thankful for our partnership with Culmore Clinic and hope to be able to offer another “Ask an Attorney” session there again soon. We would love to be able to find funding to have a formal IMLP with Culmore Clinic so we can offer our services every month!
If you’d like to help fund a formal IMLP with Culmore Clinic and Just Neighbors, please reach out to Culmore Clinic’s Development Manager, Rachel James-Kelley at RachelJ@culmoreclinic.org.