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About
What is the Asylum Support Initiative?
The Asylum Support Initiative is a project that aims to provide forensic medical and psychological evaluations for those seeking asylum in the St. Louis area. These evaluations will help provide additional evidence and can subsequently help strengthen asylum applications. The initiative will provide a streamlined process of conducting forensic evaluations for asylum applications by directly connecting health care professionals trained in conducting evaluations to local asylum cases.
Currently, the Asylum Support Initiative seeks to recruit, train, and establish a roster of volunteers who can then conduct forensic medical and/or psychological evaluations for asylum seekers in the St. Louis area. This initiative will also house a research component to assess the impact of the interventions.
Why are we doing this?
In 2021, a study reveals that 81.6% of asylum seekers and other immigrants who obtained forensic medical evaluations were granted protection in the United States, as opposed to the national asylum, grant rate of 42.4% between 2008 and 2018. This shows that the inclusion of a forensic evaluation in the asylum application significantly increases the chance for approval.
Funding & Partnerships
The Center for Human Rights, Gender and Migration, received the Here and Next Fall 2023 award to establish and house the Asylum Support Initiative. The Asylum Support Initiative works in partnership with the WashU School of Law Immigration Law Clinic (ILC), the MICA Project, and practitioners from the WashU Medical School.
Get Involved
Requirements
- To volunteer, you must be a WashU physician, psychologist, or licensed clinical social worker OR must be an active WashU medical student or social work student in good academic standing.
- Commit to a minimum of two years
- Have strong writing, communication, and organizational skills
- Complete training
- Send an application package
Step 1 | Watch the information session
Step 2 | Complete training modules
Register and complete the first five core modules of the online self-paced training.
Additional modules are optional.
Step 3 | Send your application package
Send the following items* to centerforhumanrights@wustl.edu.
- CV or Resume
- Copy of all relevant credentials/ certificates
- Certificate of completion for the first five core modules*
*May be sent separately