Name: Sarah Morris (she/her)
Program: Case Manager, Marjorie Kovler Center
Favorite Quarantine Meal: Tacos
Currently Binge Watching: Bridgerton!
Tell us about a new project or goal you’re working on. I am fluent in Spanish, but many of our participants speak French. It’s a goal of mine to gain at least some French fluency to build relationships with French-speaking clients.
How did you get into human rights and immigration work? After my freshman year of college, I lived and worked at Annunciation House, which is a shelter for migrants in El Paso, Texas, directly on the U.S.-Mexico border. Annunciation House is a difficult but beautiful place. We worked with both undocumented folks and migrants who were recently released from ICE custody and were traveling to meet family members throughout the U.S. The hospitality we provided was very short term and focused on guests’ immediate needs. I often found myself wondering how guests were doing after their short stay with us. Working at Kovler has been a wonderful combination of addressing those immediate needs and working with participants to establish permanent homes and community in Chicago.
Why is this work important to the community and those Heartland Alliance supports? Kovler serves survivors of politically sanctioned torture from dozens of countries all over the world. As a case manager, the most important part of my job is not always the participant’s torture experience but rather the difficulties and injustices of starting a life in the U.S. Working with participants to navigate bureaucracy is a big part of our job. One great example of advocacy towards this end is the VTTC program, which was advocated for by Heartland’s Kimberly Drew and which offers state cash benefits and Medicaid coverage to victims of trafficking, torture, and other crimes who are applying for asylum.
I think that the most important part of Kovler is the community we create in solidarity with survivors. After experiencing torture in their home countries and a difficult journey, our participants’ first experience of the U.S. is often spending weeks or months in a detention center. Kovler invites survivors into the Rogers Park/Chicago community and shows them that they are wanted, welcome, and valuable. I am so grateful to do this work and to be a small part of making our community what we’re called to be.
What is your favorite part of your job? Working with our amazing case management team and wonderful participants. Celebrating small victories with our team. Asylum wins!
How can others support your work? Donate!!! We are always in need of interpreters and volunteer therapists, lawyers, dentists, and optometrists. If you have skills ranging from being a kind human to a doctorate degree, there’s a place for you at Kovler. Educate yourself on immigration and on conflict and oppression around the world. Many of our clients currently come from Cameroon, for example, where a brutal yet wildly underreported conflict is taking place. And vote, protest, and engage in civic action – many of our participants were tortured and persecuted for political actions that we in the U.S. take for granted.
