UIC CARES Clinic receives grant to expand services in Latine communities

The UIC CARES Clinic, which supports the success of people with disabilities and their families, has received a $65K grant from the Illinois Department of Human Services to support parent and caregiver training for Latine families with young children who have developmental disabilities.

The training focuses on self-care, social and behavioral skills,and improving family interactions. Rocco Catrone, principal investigator and visiting clinical assistant professor, and Elizabeth Cambray-Engstrom, co-principal investigator and post-doctoral faculty, oversee the grant's implementation.

En español

"Research tells us that Latine children and families access diagnosis and services at a much later time than their white peers," Cambray-Engstrom said. Based on the research, the grant seeks to help alleviate some of the disparities by providing culturally-relevant care families may not have otherwise received.

Catrone said that disability justice is essential in their work, and they are integrating community consult and engagement into all their work. CARES is creating training and support in a way that makes sense for the communities we serve, as led by the communities we serve, he said.

"This is a unique training, because it supports people that might be waiting for more extensive behavioral interventions that last for weeks, months,or years. This can help provide service and thought processes before they go into anything more formal," Catrone said.

The grant also will help with outreach to 50 Latine families in total. With Spanish being the second-most spoken language in Chicago, it made sense to make this the first language this program was translated to, for greatest impact. In the future, they hope to expand their work to translate materials into Polish, Urdu, Arabicand other languages to support engagement throughout Chicago. Catrone has done similar work previously in South China and Italy.

"Often when we support Latine families, not only are we supporting individual families; we're often supporting their networks as well," Cambray-Engstrom said.

"This type of training offers things that people aren't normally able to access unless they have private insurance."